Global warming threatens not only humans, but also many animals, both on land, water and under water.
That’s because the gender of green turtles is determined at the stage of the incubation period in the egg. Unlike many chordates, in which the birth of a male or female is most often determined by random, green turtle’s gender is determined by the ambient temperature. In other words, if the egg was in warm conditions, then the female will appear from the egg, otherwise – the male.
However, remembering the coming global warming, it is very unpleasant to realize that a whole species of sea turtles is under threat of extinction.
Ana Patricio from the University of Exeter commented this situation:
“Today the gender distribution of green turtles looks more or less evenly – there are only two percent more females than males. But as climate change intensifies, we will see how the males become less, and eventually they will become so few that the species will be on the verge of extinction”.
Scientists from many universities, that are exploring this problem, came to the conclusion that in this century green turtles will still be able to deal with the impending threat, but literally in 90-100 years the females of this species will become much more males, which will lead to the beginning of their extinction.
