Global warming affecting turtle nesting

AMES, Iowa, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A scientist says turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other U.S. areas are altering their nesting dates because of global warming.

Iowa State University Professor Fred Janzen said he has accumulated research data going back decades in order to track the habits of the turtles to find out when they make nests and lay eggs.

"The results have been astonishing," said Janzen. "In some cases such as regional populations of red-eared sliders, they are now nesting three weeks earlier than they did in the early 1990s. That is the fastest response to climate change of any species that I know of.

"What we found was that in the late 1980s, painted turtles started nesting in early June (but) now it is on the order of 10 days or more earlier," said Janzen. "These behaviors are showing how the plasticity of the species is helping them survive, but we are wondering what the limit is to their ability to adapt."

Janzen and his collaborators studied mud turtles, sliders, snapping turtles and painted turtles that live in South Carolina, Nebraska and along the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois.