Journal article
Impact of Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) on Burrow Architecture of Ghost Crabs (Genus Ocypode) on Sandy Beaches
Environmental Management, Vol.45(6), pp.1352-1362
2010
Abstract
Recreational beach use with off-road vehicles is popular, but potentially harmful from an environmental perspective. Beaches are important habitats to invertebrates such as ghost crabs of the genus Ocyopde, which excavate extensive and elaborate burrows. Ghost crabs are sensitive to human pressures and changes in burrow architecture may thus be a consequence of disturbance by vehicles-the predictive hypothesis of this article. This was tested during the austral spring and summer by comparing 305 burrow casts between beaches open and closed to vehicles in Eastern Australia. Traffic influenced burrow architecture: there were smaller crabs on vehicle-impacted beaches, and after the peak traffic period (Christmas and New Year holidays), these crabs had tunnelled deeper into the sediment on shores rutted by cars. Crabs constructed all types of previously described burrows, but, significantly, smaller crabs from vehicle-impacted beaches simplified their shapes following heavy traffic disturbance from four (I, J, Y, M) to only two types (I, Y). These data support a model of active behavioural responses to disturbance from vehicles, extending the known effects of beach traffic to impacts on behavioural traits of the beach fauna.
Details
- Title
- Impact of Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) on Burrow Architecture of Ghost Crabs (Genus Ocypode) on Sandy Beaches
- Authors
- Serena Lucrezi (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health and EducationThomas Schlacher (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health and Education
- Publication details
- Environmental Management, Vol.45(6), pp.1352-1362
- Publisher
- Springer New York LLC
- Date published
- 2010
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00267-010-9491-5
- ISSN
- 0364-152X
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450173602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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