The study in
Frontiers in Marine Science provides evidence for intermittent passages of warm water that allow sea turtles to cross otherwise inhospitably cold ocean barriers.
The findings could help inform the design of conservation measures to protect sea turtles and other migratory sea creatures amid climatic changes that are altering their movements.
“For decades, our ability to connect the migratory dots for this endangered species has remained elusive,” says lead author Dana Briscoe, who was a research associate at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment during the research and now works at the Cawthron Institute, New Zealand’s largest independent marine science organization.