A local beach community is at the center of a major international climate change study.
The Topsail Turtle Project—part of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Center—was selected as one of just thirty-one programs globally to participate in a study led by the University of Swansea in Wales.
Over thirty-eight days, local volunteers monitored sand temperatures fifty centimeters below the surface—the typical depth of a sea turtle nest.
Because sea turtle gender is determined by sand temperature, warming climates are causing a dangerous surge in female hatchlings and creating lethal heat for embryos. To fight this, volunteers applied five liters of seawater daily to specific test plots to see if irrigation can effectively cool the nests.
Project leaders say the data collected on Topsail Island will help scientists worldwide determine if seawater irrigation can save future generations of sea turtles.
