Université Paris–Sud — France & Worldwide (2014)

All seven species of sea turtles exhibit temperature-dependent sex determination. Sex ratio depends on sand temperature where eggs are incubated, and sand temperature is itself dependent on many other factors. Dr. Marc Girondot and his team at the Université Paris–Sud will use a 2014 SWOT grant to build a global sand temperature database of all existing—both published and unpublished—records of sand and nest temperatures. This database will be used in a meta-analysis to make a prognosis of sand temperature on a global scale. The goal of the project is to create a model to predict nest temperatures and their effect on sea turtle sex ratios globally on the basis of actual sand temperatures and inferred influences of factors such as air and sea surface temperature and physical properties of beaches.