Beach parties are common events during summer season in temperate and sub-tropical areas. The timing of human activities during a beach party is notably different than most other tourism-related activities, and might thus have a different impact on sandy beach mobile macrofauna, which is mainly active at night. We studied therefore the impact of small-size, non-commercial beach parties that are commonly held in Greece by analyzing the stress impact of artificial lighting and trampling on the response variable, the number of captures obtained with pitfall traps placed at impacted and control sites. As a further control, the same study sites were sampled in the same period using pitfalls placed across the shore throughout the night. The results of the analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) applied to a similarity matrix based on abundance data show no difference between impact and control traps. Regardless of the party events, the main species forming the macrofauna community of sandy beaches were Labidura riparia, Phaleria bimaculata and Talitrus saltator. The results highlight the sustainability of small-size, time-limited party events that might represent a direct, non-consumptive use of beaches. © 2013 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, Italia.
Beach parties: A case study on recreational human use of the beach and its effects on mobile arthropod fauna
Fanini L.
Primo
Conceptualization
;
2014-01-01
Abstract
Beach parties are common events during summer season in temperate and sub-tropical areas. The timing of human activities during a beach party is notably different than most other tourism-related activities, and might thus have a different impact on sandy beach mobile macrofauna, which is mainly active at night. We studied therefore the impact of small-size, non-commercial beach parties that are commonly held in Greece by analyzing the stress impact of artificial lighting and trampling on the response variable, the number of captures obtained with pitfall traps placed at impacted and control sites. As a further control, the same study sites were sampled in the same period using pitfalls placed across the shore throughout the night. The results of the analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) applied to a similarity matrix based on abundance data show no difference between impact and control traps. Regardless of the party events, the main species forming the macrofauna community of sandy beaches were Labidura riparia, Phaleria bimaculata and Talitrus saltator. The results highlight the sustainability of small-size, time-limited party events that might represent a direct, non-consumptive use of beaches. © 2013 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, Italia.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
