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Burrowing behavior and burrowing energetics of a bioindicator under human disturbance.

ABSTRACT: Bioindicator species are extensively used for rapid assessment of ecological changes. Their use commonly focuses on changes in population abundance and individual sizes in response to environmental change. These numerical and demographic shifts likely have behavioral and physiological mechanistic drivers that, if understood, could provide additional insights into the use of these species as bioindicators of habitat health.The Atlantic ghost crab, Ocypode quadrata, is a global bioindicator species of human disturbance on sandy shores. Individual size and population abundance of O. quadrata decline dramatically at sites with human disturbance, and the causes of this phenomenon remain unclear.Here, we test the hypothesis that individual and population-level changes at disturbed sites reflect changes in burrowing behavior and energetics. Specifically, we examine whether or not the burrowing behavior (e.g., burrow fidelity and longevity) of O. quadrata changes because of human disturbance. We also examine energy required for burrowing by O. quadrata across different levels of human disturbance.We show that O. quadrata have the highest burrow fidelity and longevity at sites with low level of human impact, and weakest burrow fidelity and longevity at pristine sites. O. quadrata reduce the burrowing energy allocation by manipulating the burrow dimension and increasing the burrow longevity even under low levels of human disturbance.Overall, this study shows that human disturbances not only change the behavior of organisms, but also shift energetic balance. Our results support the use of a bioenergetic approach to better understand how human disturbances influence natural populations, and the specific use of this approach with this bioindicator species.

SUBMITTER: Gul MR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6953561 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Burrowing behavior and burrowing energetics of a bioindicator under human disturbance.

Gül Mustafa R MR Griffen Blaine D BD

Ecology and evolution 20191128 24

Bioindicator species are extensively used for rapid assessment of ecological changes. Their use commonly focuses on changes in population abundance and individual sizes in response to environmental change. These numerical and demographic shifts likely have behavioral and physiological mechanistic drivers that, if understood, could provide additional insights into the use of these species as bioindicators of habitat health.The Atlantic ghost crab, <i>Ocypode quadrata</i>, is a global bioindicator ...[more]

PMID: 31938512

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Project description:In the Anthropocene, understanding the impacts of anthropogenic influence on biodiversity and behavior of vulnerable wildlife communities is increasingly relevant to effective conservation. However, comparative studies aimed at disentangling the concurrent effect of different types of human disturbance on multifaceted biodiversity and on activity patterns of mammals are surprisingly rare. We applied a multiregion community model to separately estimate the effects of cumulative human modification (e.g., settlement, agriculture, and transportation) and human presence (aggregated presence of dogs, people, and livestock) on species richness and functional composition of medium- and large-bodied mammals based on camera trap data collected across 45 subtropical montane forests. We divided the detected mammal species into three trophic guilds-carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores-and assessed the nocturnal shifts of each guild in response to anthropogenic activities. Overall, species richness tended to increase (β coefficient = 0.954) as human modification increased but richness decreased as human presence increased (β = -1.054). Human modification was associated with significantly lower functional diversity (mean nearest taxon distance [MNTD], β = -0.134; standardized effect sizes of MNTD, β = -0.397), community average body mass (β = -0.240), and proportion of carnivores (β = -0.580). Human presence was associated with a strongly reduced proportion of herbivores (β = -0.522), whereas proportion of omnivores significantly increased as human presence (β = 0.378) and habitat modification (β = 0.419) increased. In terms of activity patterns, omnivores (β = 12.103) and carnivores (β = 9.368) became more nocturnal in response to human modification. Our results suggest that human modification and human presence have differing effects on mammals and demonstrate that anthropogenic disturbances can lead to drastic loss of functional diversity and result in a shift to nocturnal behavior of mammals. Conservation planning should consider concurrent effects of different types of human disturbance on species richness, functional diversity, and behavior of wildlife communities.

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Burrowing behavior and burrowing energetics of a bioindicator under human disturbance.

Publications

Burrowing behavior and burrowing energetics of a bioindicator under human disturbance.

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