The Effect of Beach Renourishment upon the Nest Fertility of Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Robert Albury

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Keywords

Beach Renourishment, Nourishment, Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Nest Fertility

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

It was my objective in this thesis to examine the effects of beach renourishment upon nest fertility of Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) found on the nesting beaches of Boca Raton, Florida. A ten-year period of historical data was taken from the archives of the City of Boca Ration Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program, which covered the 1994 through the 2003 nesting season. This historical data set was used to examine the nest fertility levels of sea turtle nests, after beach renourishment. Three renourishment projects occurred during this period. A filtering process was employed to remove the effects of factors other than beach renourishment from the data. The control site and the double renourishment site showed decreased fertility in following seasons, though these changes were not shown as being statistically significant. The single renourishment site had an increase in fertility levels during the following season, though this difference was also found not to be statistically significant. This project was not able to show any statistically significant effects of renourishment upon the nest fertility of Loggerhead sea turtles, though there was an observable trend change in fertility rate that appeared to be related to the occurrence of renourishment projects.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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