Physical constraints on sand crab burrows: Mechanical properties of wet sand explain the size and spatial distributions of burrows on beaches (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ocypode ceratophthalma and O. sinensis were observed in foreshore, backshore, and dune subenvironments on the Irino Coast, southwestern Japan, with the aim of clarifying their paleoenvironmental significance. The observed diameter of the main shaft, burrow depth, and total burrow length varied from 14 to 40 mm, 12 to 89 em, and 8 to 143 cm, respectively. Although the burrow diameters are largely similar among the three subenvironments, the burrows increased in length and complexity from the foreshore to dune subenvironments. These findings indicate that burrow morphology can be used as an indicator of ancient sandy beach subenvironments.
地質学雑誌, 2008
Burrow morphologies of the ghost crabs Ocypode ceratophthalma and O. sinensis were observed in foreshore, backshore, and dune subenvironments on the Irino Coast, southwestern Japan, with the aim of clarifying their paleoenvironmental significance. The observed diameter of the main shaft, burrow depth, and total burrow length varied from 14 to 40mm, 12 to 89cm, and 8 to 143cm, respectively. Although the burrow diameters are largely similar among the three subenvironments, the burrows increased in length and complexity from the foreshore to dune subenvironments. These findings indicate that burrow morphology can be used as an indicator of ancient sandy beach subenvironments.
Burrow morphology of ghost crab Ocypode stimpsoni on Ikarashi beach, Niigata, Japan
Plankton and Benthos Research
Lack of evidence prevents an understanding of how ghost crabs create burrows underground. For the reconstruction of ichnogenetic stages in the burrows of ghost crabs, we report on how the burrows of the ghost crab Ocypode stimpsoni from the foreshore and backshore on Ikarashi beach, Niigata, Japan are created. Plaster casting of the burrows reveals detailed morphology with bioglyphs on the burrow wall. The casts of burrows show a variety of morphologies, such as J-and Y-shapes. Based on the burrow ichnogeny, J-shaped burrows were well constructed at a shallower level of the waterline underneath the beach, occasionally creating a second opening of the burrow. In turn, Y-shaped burrows were constructed at a deeper waterline, thereby recycling and reburrowing the deepest part of the J-shaped burrow. As a result, the total depth of Y-shaped burrows tends to be larger than that of J-shaped burrows. The depth and mean diameter of the burrows range from 3.3-37.6 cm and 9.28-31.54 mm, respectively, and the depths are apparently shorter than those on a Pacific beach. The lines of evidence suggest that the morphological features of burrows in Ikarashi beach are attributed to a smaller difference in tidal level in the Sea of Japan, where the available space for burrows ought to be limited by the waterline under the ground.
Environmental Management, 2010
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.
Ghost crab populations respond to changing morphodynamic and habitat properties on sandy beaches
Acta Oecologica, 2015
The morphodynamic state and habitat properties of microtidal sandy beaches largely account for variations in macrofauna structure. In ecological theory, the habitat harshness hypothesis and the habitat safety hypothesis explain variations in macrofauna populations of the intertidal and supratidal zones of sandy beaches. The former hypothesis states that intertidal macrofauna should increase from reflective to dissipative beaches. The latter hypothesis supports the idea that supratidal species are more successful on reflective beaches, given their relative independence from the swash. However, trends in abundance of supratidal species, particularly crustaceans, have been unclear and further investigation is therefore needed. This study tested the two hypotheses on the largest invertebrate intertidal-to-supratidal crustacean on sandy beaches, namely the ghost crab (genus Ocypode). Variations in ghost crab burrow density, abundance, size and across-shore distribution were measured on four warm-temperate microtidal sandy beaches in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Burrow numbers increased with beach morphodynamic state, while average burrow size decreased. The steepest, narrowest and most inundationprone beach represented the least hospitable environment for the ghost crabs. The results that are reported here tend to support the habitat harshness hypothesis. However, the relevance of i) individual physical variables, ii) tidal action, and iii) the ecology of various species, in shaping ghost crab population dynamics, is also discussed. The results contribute to the knowledge regarding population dynamics of intertidal and supratidal crustaceans across beach types.
Spatial distribution patterns of the ghost crab Ocypode quadrata were analysed using different approaches at one disturbed and two preserved reflective sandy beaches of the Mexican Caribbean. We used spatial correlation analysis to describe the across-shore distribution of O. quadrata and their patch dynamics by beach and sampling time. In addition, we analysed the across-shore variability of habitat extent of O. quadrata (habitat envelope) and its relation to human disturbance and beach features. The spatial structure of burrow density was consistent through time, showing a bimodal distribution with very low abundance in the mid distribution range and a discrete increment of burrows to landward. Nonetheless, the size of patches varied temporally for the three beaches. Burrow size increased from seaward to landward. The location of the first burrow and the habitat envelope varied among sampling times and beaches. The location of the first burrow is mostly mediated by the swash climate, while the habitat envelope is mainly controlled by the level of human disturbance. Despite the low number of disturbed and control beaches, our results suggest that the habitat envelope could be included in future studies when using ghost crabs as indicators of human disturbance. Polynomial models and variographic analysis proved to be useful tools to describe the across-shore distribution and patch dynamics of the ghost crab.
Beach cusps and burrowing activity of crabs on a fine-grained sandy beach, southeastern Nigeria
1989
The significance of morphological features have usually been under-emphasized in ecological studies of sandy beaches. One consequence of the latter is the widely-held view that organisms inhabiting beach ecosystems depict an unpredictable longshore distribution pattern. The above is refuted in this present study of burrow density of crab species ( Ocypoda africana and Ocypoda cursor ) encountered on cusps along a fine-grained, mesotidal, sandy beach fringing the southeastern coast of Nigeria. Generally, higher burrow densities were observed on transects along cusp horns compared with those of the adjacent bays. In contrast with the cusped foreshore segments, burrow densities on adjacent non-cusped segments were devoid of any predictable pattern. Averages of the mean values of burrow diameter and depth were relatively higher on cusp horn compared with cusp bay. Elevated values of depth-diameter ratio were also evident on the former. The lower burrow depth on bay is related to the moi...
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.