The Sandwatch Turtle Tool Kit
* Sandwatch Turtle Tool Kit (5.2 MB)
This Manual, developed as part of the senior author’s Master’s Project at Duke University (Varela‐Acevedo 2009) and facilitated by a summer (2008) internship with the Barbados Sea Turtle Project (Dr. Julia Horrocks, Director), discusses the relationship between coastal geomorphology and the reproductive success of endangered Caribbean sea turtles. Specifically, we address coastline seascape change as affected by climate change and human development, and the potential effect such change may have on the nesting behavior of the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).
Long‐term concerns about the ability of coastal sandy beaches to sustain sea turtle nesting are confounded by a general lack of understanding of what characteristics are important to sea turtles during the nest site selection process. From a global climate change perspective, understanding how vulnerable these characteristics are to, for example, sea level rise is vital to sea turtle management and policy decisions, land use planning, and so on. The objective of this project was to develop a methodology for evaluating the vulner‐ ability of sea turtle nesting beaches to climate change. That methodology now forms the basis of this Sea Turtle Nesting Beach Characterization Manual.
The Manual is designed to inform and educate coastal communities about how changing coastlines affect bio‐ diversity and beaches, with a focus on hawksbill sea turtles. It is hoped that the Manual will encourage and empower Caribbean communities to define, implement, and monitor actions to conserve sea turtle habitats determined to be most vulnerable to erosion and degradation related to short‐term coastal processes and longer term threats posed to Small Island Developing States, in particular, by climate change scenarios .
* Sandwatch Turtle Tool Kit (5.2 MB)
This Manual, developed as part of the senior author’s Master’s Project at Duke University (Varela‐Acevedo 2009) and facilitated by a summer (2008) internship with the Barbados Sea Turtle Project (Dr. Julia Horrocks, Director), discusses the relationship between coastal geomorphology and the reproductive success of endangered Caribbean sea turtles. Specifically, we address coastline seascape change as affected by climate change and human development, and the potential effect such change may have on the nesting behavior of the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).
Long‐term concerns about the ability of coastal sandy beaches to sustain sea turtle nesting are confounded by a general lack of understanding of what characteristics are important to sea turtles during the nest site selection process. From a global climate change perspective, understanding how vulnerable these characteristics are to, for example, sea level rise is vital to sea turtle management and policy decisions, land use planning, and so on. The objective of this project was to develop a methodology for evaluating the vulner‐ ability of sea turtle nesting beaches to climate change. That methodology now forms the basis of this Sea Turtle Nesting Beach Characterization Manual.
The Manual is designed to inform and educate coastal communities about how changing coastlines affect bio‐ diversity and beaches, with a focus on hawksbill sea turtles. It is hoped that the Manual will encourage and empower Caribbean communities to define, implement, and monitor actions to conserve sea turtle habitats determined to be most vulnerable to erosion and degradation related to short‐term coastal processes and longer term threats posed to Small Island Developing States, in particular, by climate change scenarios .