Macroinvertebrates as umbrella species on sandy beaches

Recovery of ghost crabs metapopulations on urban beaches during the Covid-19 “anthropause”

“…The construction of burrows visible on the sand surface provides a unique opportunity to apply non-destructive and low-cost estimates of ghost crabs’ population sizes for monitoring purposes of beach condition. Burrow counts have offered an optimal benefit-cost in beach impact assessments for decades, mainly because the protection of habitat requirements of ghost crabs might favour the conservation of co-occurring species ( Barboza et al, 2021 ; Costa and Zalmon, 2021 ).…”

The science we need for the beaches we want: frontiers of the flourishing Brazilian ecological sandy beach research

“…Experiments to assess anthropogenic and climate change impacts are still scarce (but see Laurino et al, 2020;Izar et al, 2022;Laurino et al, 2022, Laurino et al, 2023Laurino and Turra, 2021). Nevertheless, Brazilian researchers advanced in the use of biodiversity as tools for environmental monitoring and assessment (Pombo and Turra, 2013;Cardoso et al, 2016;Gorman et al, 2017;Pombo and Turra, 2017;Checon et al, 2018a;Checon et al, 2018b;Costa and Zalmon, 2019;Costa et al, 2020b;Barboza et al, 2021;Costa and Zalmon, 2021;Costa et al, 2022a;Checon et al, 2023b;Checon et al, 2023c).…”

Social and Ecological Elements for a Perspective Approach to Citizen Science on the Beach

“…The process of restructuring does not have to be disruptive, yet old tools can be loaded with new meaning. This would span from very practical tools (e.g., the recommendation to refer to existing icons for visual communication, Sturm et al, 2017) to broaden existing perspectives (e.g., the increase in ecological insights required to shift from considering charismatic species to umbrella species, including habitat requirements, taxon congruency, and ecological interactions beyond charisma, Costa and Zalmon, 2021).…”