P2.45  Tuesday, Jan. 5  Temperature variations within and among Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Carreta carreta) nests across SPARROW, J.D.*; ROSTAL, D.C.; Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro; Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro jsparro1@georgiasouthern.edu

SPARROW, J.D, ROSTAL, D. C.
Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro
Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro
jsparro1@georgiasouthern.edu
Temperature variations within and among Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Carreta carreta) nests across the season
Loggerhead sea turtles have temperature dependent sex determination meaning that depending on temperature during the middle third of incubation only males, females or a mixture of males and females will be produced. For C. caretta males are produced mainly at the beginning of the season, a mixture of males and females during the mid season, and females during late season. However, not much is known about how much the temperature varies within a nest. To assess the variation in temperature between top, middle, and bottom of C. caretta nests during early, middle, and late season at Blackbeard Island, temperature dataloggers were utilized. Ten nests were selected from each division of the season and 3 dataloggers were placed in the nest; one in the top, middle, and bottom of each nest. In addition, three nests from each period were chosen to have a sister datalogger placed in the beach a meter north of the nest in alignment with the middle datalogger. Preliminary results show little temperature difference between top and middle dataloggers. For the entire incubation period, the bottom and sister dataloggers show cooler temperatures compared to the top and middle. Temperature during the critical period did not vary significantly across the nest from bottom to top or from the sister datalogger. Eggs at the top of the nest experienced much greater daily fluctuations in temperature than eggs at the bottom of the nest. These initial findings suggest that since the edges of the nest are hovering around pivotal temperature for sex determination (29°C) the sex ratio is normal and in temperature studies utilizing just one datalogger, the central location is sufficient to understand the nest temperature.