The team of researchers set out to test if long-term climate change poses a threat or opportunity to turtles and tortoises and how they might respond to increased global temperatures.
As turtles live such long lives, it is impossible to conduct experiments to test for the impact of warming over several generations. The group used a novel combination of state of the art climate models and the deep time fossil record of turtles during warmer times.
The results of this study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with support from The Royal Society, show that during periods with much warmer climates, turtles and tortoises were able to stand the heat in the warmer tropics – as long as there was enough water to support those species living in rivers and lakes.
Some groups of turtles have maintained similar niches over millions of years. They have withstood warmer climates in the past and their ability to adapt to the rate of environmental change happening today will be an important factor in their resilience to future climate change."
Turtles and tortoises are highly sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall, hence concerns about the impact of climate change on their distribution. Alongside overexploitation and habitat loss, climate change is a significant threat to their conservation status with growth, abundance and geographical ranges all predicted to decline under future climate change projections.
In many species, temperature determines if the egg will develop into a male or female showing a direct impact of warming. As the group lives in ponds, rivers, on land and in the sea climate change can impact them via changes in temperature, rainfall, and major ocean currents.