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Sea turtles are famous for their amazing wounds, as they travel thousands of miles away through vast oceans with a few landmarks.
Now, a new study, published on Wednesday in Nature MagazineRevealing Turtles with a registered headThe most abundant types of sea turtles that nest in the United States, learn magnetic fields for specific geographical locations. This superpower is likely to help them return to environmental important areas for overlap and nutrition.
while Former research It revealed the turtles that have constantly revealed certain sites and also the use of magnetic fields for transportation, and the researchers said that this study is the first of its kind to determine the heads of the records that keep these magnetic fields, especially cases associated with food sources, to return to the time they finish immigration.
The researchers found the captains of the events that respond to magnetic air conditioning through what the team described as “dance” in anticipation of foods in the fields that were previously fed, indicating that it links the magnetic sermon to nutrition sites.
The study also opened a major discovery in turtle mobility. Boggerheads depends on two distinct magnetic systems – magnetic map for tracking sites and magnetic compass for the direction of the guidance.
When the registrar heads are exposed to radiological frequencies, or RF, the waves – the same type of radiation emitted by devices such as mobile phones and radio radio fields – remains its magnetic map stable, while its compass is disabled.
This revelation raises concerns about memorization, as the activity of boats and the use of the device near the rapprochement beaches may interfere with the ability of turtles to migrate, according to the author’s author, Dr. Kayla Jovurth, a post -doctoral researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Texas A and M, who worked In research as a doctorate student at North Carolina University, Chaplin Hill. Researchers suggest reducing the waves of wireless frequencies in the major turtles habitats to help protect these old marine creatures.
What makes turtles “dance”
Loggerhead hatchlings sits to the ocean in July 2022 in Venezuela after being released by maintaining their protection from predators. – Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images/File
Turtles can discover all the power of the earth Magnetic fieldsIt ranges from about 25,000 nanotines to 65,000 nanotines – a measure of the intensity of the magnetic field, according to Jovor.
To understand the magnetic receptors of the turtles, the researchers collected between 14 to 16 Lugpers’ heads from August from 2017 to 2020. Turtles appeared from eight to 10 different nests from the island of Bald Head, North Carolina.
The team includes turtles in individual tanks with control over the control of control and a standard diet to simulate natural sea water conditions.
Previous turtles experiences used magnetic intensity with a difference of at least 2000 Nanotisla, but Jovurth and her team chose sites along the American eastern coast throughout the Atlantic Ocean and have developed a coil system for producing fields between 2000 and 10,000 Nanotisla for change.
During a two -month air conditioning period, the study team put turtles in small buckets of seawater and displayed on two different magnetic fields for equal periods. One of the fields coincided with the magnetic force of whats in the Gulf of Mexico and was linked to food (“equivalent”), while the other simulated the magnetic flow of a site near New Hampshire and had no food).
Once the air conditioning is over, turtles were tested again in both magnetic fields, but this time, they did not contain food, allowing researchers to determine whether the turtles have learned to connect the “equivalent” field to nutrition.
In the “equivalent” field, all marine reptiles showed somewhat the behavior of the “turtle dance”, which included tilting their bodies vertically, grabbing their heads near or above the surface of the water, opening their mouths, moving them quickly, sometimes, sometimes, and sometimes moving them in the front strangers, Sometimes spinning in a place, according to the study.
To confirm the consistency of these results through different sites, the researchers conducted the same experiment using the magnetic fields that mimic these off the coast of Cuba against Delaware, Men opposite Florida, and two additional sites.
In each of the five experiments, about 80 % of turtles showed more “dance” in the “reward” fields compared to “unaccounted”, which indicates that this skill is used globally, not only in one specific location.
While the “turtle dance” is particularly charming, Jovurth noted that this behavior only occurs in captivity. However, the movement style provides a useful measure to show whether the turtles have learned the magnetic field and tied it to food.
After the initial experience, scientists tested 16 turtles again after four months to assess their long -term memory. Even without additional reinforcement, 80 % of the headquarters showed a larger “dance” in the “reward” field, although the total amount of movement was less.
Jovurth pointed out that the turtles are likely remembered the magnetic air conditioning for a long longer, because most of the records leave their beach nesting as hacks and returned after about 20 years to put their first nest.
Using the land magnetic field for navigation
Once researchers respond to turtles to food -related magnetic fields, they wanted to determine whether the turtles use the same biological systems themselves or different for their magnetic map (knowing where they are) and the magnetic compass (knowing the desired direction).
Using radio frequency waves – a type of energy that can disrupt biological sensors such as those Birds are used to detect Earth’s magnetic field – researchers tested whether the turtles still can discover their magnetic map and a magnetic compass.
One set of turtles was tested without RF waves, while the other was tested using RF waves. Usually, turtles swim in a specific direction depending on the field where they live to stay inside the correct ocean currents of migration. However, when the waves of wireless frequencies exist, turtles swam randomly, indicating the disruption of their compass.
Their ability to identify the magnetic map (or food -related sites) remain intact, even with RF overlap.
“This understanding provides additional information towards knowing how marine turtles and other animals are able to move between hundreds and thousands of miles across the oceans that do not have clear material features to help navigation,” said Dr. Daniel Evans, a research. Biology world with Sea Turte Conservance via email. Evans did not participate in the study.
To achieve more on how to explain the turtles magnetic signals, the study team examined the two main features in the Earth’s magnetic field: inclination, or tilt the magnetic field lines in relation to the surface of the earth, intensity, or the power of the magnetic field.
The researchers created non -identical magnetic fields by combining the inclination of one geographical location with the severity of the other, and the exchange of values during experiments.
Turtles did not recognize a place that the inclination and intensity did not match, proving that they depend on a group of these factors to determine their location.
This last research reveals this, Like birds and amphibiansTurtle also depends on dual magnetic eradication systems, which can provide more ideas about other immigrant vertebrates.
Looking towards preserving marine turtles
Jovurth stressed that the most important ready -made meals of this research are that the waves of wireless frequencies produced by electronic devices negatively affect the transportation of sea turtles.
If the turtles are residing in the ocean areas with heavy boat movement or come to the beaches to the nest where people use phones frequently, their navigational senses may be disrupted.
Companies and individuals can take proactive measures by limiting the use of the device on water or beaches to reduce the disturbances to the sea turtles.
“From the point of view of memorization, we now need to consider the potential effects of human activities on these different mechanisms,” said Evans. () The areas that the sea turtles continue to return to are important to these turtles, and these areas affect a strong study of protection and preservation.
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