Apparent increasing importance of Adriatic Sea as a developmental habitat for Mediterranean green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas)

In the Mediterranean, green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has exhibited increase in number of nests over past two decades. While Eastern Mediterranean is recognized as a high use area, scarce observations turtles Adriatic Sea suggested only low-level utilization this area. This study presents new findings and analyses importance region for species. combination with published records, we present 75 species including eight records. The records generally low but shows an intriguing ten-fold since 2000. may be result three confounding factors: (i) positive population trend at main nesting sites Mediterranean; (ii) increased institutional capacity research conservation decades, (iii) raising temperatures. Documented increases surface temperatures have established suitable recurring thermal corridors along Ionian-Adriatic developmental pathway provided environmental cues immigration juvenile into Adriatic. As abundance will likely future, efforts needed to avoid becoming sink habitat population.