Sandy Beach Macrofauna of Yucatán State (Mexico) and Oil Industry Development in the Gulf of Mexico: First Approach for Detecting Environmental Impacts

Guerra‐Castro, Edlin; Hidalgo, Gema; Castillo-Cupul, Raúl E.; Muciño-Reyes, M; Noreña-Barroso, Elsa; Quiroz-Deaquino, Jaime; Mascaró, Maité; Simões, Nuno

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.589656

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Tourist impacts can be so damaging that Niefer (2002) suggests continuous monitoring of visitors, the establishment of information centers, educational trails, and environmental education projects. Recently, Guerra-Castro et al (2020) used an open beach biodiversity assessment methodology to establish solid baselines to compare in cases of extreme impacts applied in Mexican tourist and non-tourist beaches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does the beach ecosystem change without tourists during COVID-19 lockdown?

Soto

Botero

Milanés

et al. 2021

Biological Conservation

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Urban tourist beach ecosystems provide the essential service of recreation. These ecosystems also support critical ecological functions where biodiversity conservation is not usually a priority. The sudden lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to evaluate the effects of human absence in these urbancoastal ecosystems. This study examined bioindicators from 29 urban tourist beaches in seven Latin-American countries and assesses their response to lockdown about some relevant anthropogenic stressors such as pollution, noise, human activities, and user density. The presence of animals and plants, as well as the intensity of stressors, were assessed through a standardized protocol during lockdown conditions. Additionally, the environmental conditions of the beaches before and during lockdown were qualitatively compared using multivariate non-parametric statistics. We found notable positive changes in biological components and a clear decrease in human stressors on almost all the beaches. Dune vegetation increased on most sites. Similarly, high burrow densities of ghost crabs were observed on beaches, except those where cleaning activity persisted. Because of the lockdown, there was an exceptionally low frequency of beach users, which in turn reduced litter, noise and unnatural odors. The observed patterns suggest that tourist beaches can be restored to natural settings relatively quickly. We propose several indicators to measure changes in beaches once lockdown is relaxed. Adequate conservation strategies will render the recreational service of tourist beaches more environmental-friendly.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does the beach ecosystem change without tourists during COVID-19 lockdown?

Soto

Botero

Milanés

et al. 2021

Biological Conservation

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“…In any case, the large disparity in the diversity between the two studies, together with the revealed deficit in the detection of species in this study, as seen in the species accumulation curves, reinforces the idea that, despite the great sampling effort, the Río Lagartos coastal lagoon has greater mollusc diversity, and likely spatio-temporal heterogeneity, than reported in this or previous studies. This highlights the lack of information from the region that will be necessary to achieve solid ecological baseline knowledge (Guerra-Castro et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molluscs along a salinity gradient in a hypersaline coastal lagoon, southern Gulf of Mexico

et al. 2023

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Molluscs are a diverse phylum in coastal lagoons because the numerous taxa collectively display broad ranges of optima and tolerance with respect to ambient conditions. We report on the taxonomic composition, habitat preferences and feeding guilds of molluscs from Río Lagartos coastal lagoon, Mexico. Molluscs were collected in the rainy season (September/October 2017), during the winter (Nortes) season (February 2018) and at the end of the warm, dry season (May 2018). Samples were taken using a Ponar dredge, a cylindrical PVC core barrel, or a beach seine. We studied the abiotic characteristics (sediment grain-size distributions, submersed aquatic vegetation abundance and salinity) to explore assemblage differences across the broad salinity gradient that characterizes the system (~30–78 PSU). Molluscs were represented by 39 species, 34 genera, 23 families and two classes. Stenohaline species were more numerous overall than euryhaline species, but their occurrence in samples was low (<20% of the samples). Stenohaline taxa lived primarily in environments characterized by marine salinity, and few were found under hypersaline conditions. We collected a smaller number of species than did studies carried out in the lagoon >35 years ago. Species accumulation curves revealed that the full species richness was not captured in our study. Euhaline environments displayed greater mollusc species richness and had a larger proportion of amount (mass) of submersed aquatic vegetation. In the hypersaline environments, species richness may be favoured by the lower dominance of sands. Suspension feeders were the most diverse group in both the euhaline and hyperhaline environments.

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“…Recognizing the importance of these services, numerous international collaborations (Benson et al, 2018;Canonico et al, 2019) have centered their efforts to enhance monitoring, setting essential physical, chemical, and marine biological variables to be measured through standardized methods and best practices of data acquisition to subsidize conservation, management, and stackeholders decisions (Pereira et al, 2013;Miloslavich et al, 2018;Fanini et al, 2020;Guerra-Castro et al, 2020). In this sense, sandy beaches are key monitoring sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Densities of the Ghost Crab Ocypode quadrata Related to Large Scale Human Modification of Sandy Shores

et al. 2021

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Sandy beaches are the most common ecosystems of coastal regions and provide direct and indirect essential services for millions of people, such as coastal protection, fishing, tourism, and recreational activities. However, the natural habitats of sandy shores are being modified at rates never experienced before, making beaches key monitoring sites of marine ecosystems worldwide. The ghost crab species Ocypode quadrata is the most conspicuous crustacean of sandy beaches along the Western Atlantic coast and has been successfully used as an indicator of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental variability. To investigate the potential role of a “triple whammy” [(1) urbanization; (2) use of resources; (3) decreasing resilience] on the most common bioindicator of sandy shores, we compiled a dataset including 214 records of burrows density from 94 microtidal sandy beach sectors covering a range of over 65° of latitude. The response of burrows density to synergetic effects of human modification of natural systems and environmental changes was investigated using linear models. We used the cumulative Human Modification (HMc) index, a standardized geographic projection of changes of natural systems, as a predictor of urbanization, industrialization and use of resources. The predictor wave energy, tidal range and temperature (sea surface and air) were included as potential effects of climate changes. Literature review showed records mainly concentrated at sub-tropical and temperate regions. HMc values were clearly negatively related to burrows density, thereby supporting an effect of modification of natural habitat at large spatial scale. Sea surface temperature and air temperature were positive related with density and the lack of a general pattern of the relationship between burrows density, interactions between wave energy and tide range, supported unclear patterns reported at regional scales. Finally, we argue that ghost crabs are valuable targets for protection actions on sandy beaches that can benefit coexisting species and provide natural habitat conservation.

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Sandy Beach Macrofauna of Yucatán State (Mexico) and Oil Industry Development in the Gulf of Mexico: First Approach for Detecting Environmental Impacts

Cited by 12 publications

References 95 publications

How does the beach ecosystem change without tourists during COVID-19 lockdown?

How does the beach ecosystem change without tourists during COVID-19 lockdown?

Molluscs along a salinity gradient in a hypersaline coastal lagoon, southern Gulf of Mexico

Low Densities of the Ghost Crab Ocypode quadrata Related to Large Scale Human Modification of Sandy Shores

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