The current accepted methods for assessing the effect of water temperatures on sea turtle nesting, utilizes sea surface temperatures (SST). Since Loggerhead sea turtles spend the majority of their time near the ocean floor, often below a thermocline, bottom temperature analysis should be a better estimate of actual temperature experienced by the sea turtles, therefore, correlating better to nesting events. Thermograph data sensors were placed along three reef tracts that run parallel to Broward County, Florida’s coastline, to collect bottom seawater temperatures from the year 2004 through 2006. Detrended average daily bottom temperatures were compared to detrended Loggerhead sea turtle nest counts collected by daily beach monitoring throughout the county. The comparisons confirmed that during the years 2004 and 2006, up to 29.6% of the fluctuations in sea turtle nesting can be associated to the short-term changes in bottom water temperature. r2-values of 0.2963 and 0.2948 were determined along the Broward County coastline, with p-values
| Date of Award | May 12 2009 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Curtis M. Burney (Supervisor), Donald S. McCorquodale (Advisor), Kenneth Banks (Advisor) & Chris Johnson (Advisor) |
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