Revisiting the population of the Ghost Crab, Ocypode cursor, on the sandy beaches of northern Cyprus after two decades: are there causes for concern?

Abstract

As a key ecological link in food webs of sandy beaches, ghost crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura) are important for the maintenance of sandy beach ecosystems due to their scavenger properties in temperate and tropical regions. A baseline study of Ocypode cursor had been carried out at Alagadi beach in northern Cyprus in 1994 and in order to address concerns that the species may be in decline on the island, the population was re-assessed over nine weeks during summer 2017. To enable comparison of data, standardised, indirect methods were used to determine population parameters such as burrow size, population size, distribution and density. Results indicated a significant, six-fold decline in population size. Average burrow densities in our study was up to 0.05 burrows/m² in the general crab zone, while Strachan et al. (1999) had recorded up to 0.67 burrows/m². Possible reasons or factors causing such effects were considered such as invasive pufferfishes Lagocephalus sceleratus and Torquigener flavimaculosus from the Red Sea, climate change in terms of warming sea water and air temperatures and increases in extreme weather conditions such as windiness, and anthropogenic interventions such as human trampling and effects of increase in urbanisation. The management of sandy beaches and conservation of these species is urgent to re-stabilize the populations of O. cursor on the beaches of northern Cyprus.

Keywords:

• Crustacea
• sandy beaches
• intertidal ecology
• Mediterranean
• anthropogenic change

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT) for providing equipment that facilitated this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.