Exposed sandy beaches are highly dynamic ecosystems where macroinvertebrate species cope with extremely variable environmental conditions. The majority of the beach ecology studies present exposed beaches as physically dominated ecosystems where abiotic factors largely determine the structure and distribution of macrobenthic communities. However, beach species patterns at different scales can b...

The genus Arcobacter has been associated with human illness and fecal contamination by humans and animals. To better characterize the health risk posed by this emerging waterborne pathogen, we investigated the occurrence of Arcobacter spp. in Lake Erie beach waters. During the summer of 2010, water samples were collected 35 times from the Euclid, Villa Angela, and Headlands (East and West) beac...

Coastal ecosystems provide vital linkages between aquatic and terrestrial habitats and thus support extremely high levels of biodiversity. However, coastlines also contain the highest densities of human development anywhere on the planet and are favoured destinations for tourists, creating a situation where the potential for negative effects on coastal species is extremely high. I gathered data...

This study aims to estimate the recreational use values of Great Lakes beaches using a two-level nested logit Random Utility Model. The choice set contains all 594 public Great Lakes beaches in Michigan. Beach sites located in the same Great Lakes water body are arranged into a nest. The trip data were obtained from a 2006 online survey using a web-panel of Michigan adults accessed through Surv...

We consider local and global combinatorial constraints on embeddings of a simple closed curve in a rectangular array of unit squares in which the curve lies entirely within the rectangular array and passes through each unit square once. Geographical terminology is convenient to describe the embeddings. We study shortest segments of the embedded curve with no clockwise quarter turns (bays) and a...

Despite the growing demand of tourism in Malaysia, there are no resolute efforts to develop beaches as tourist destinations. With no incentives to monitor public beaches or to use them in a sustainable manner, they might eventually degenerate in quality as a result of influx of pollutants. This calls for concerted action plans with a view to promoting their sustainable use. The success of such ...

The hypothesis investigated in this paper is that the interstitial polychaete Saccocirrus sonomacus is excluded from beaches impacted by tailing disposal as a result of the blocking of the interstitial space and not by a response to the toxicity of elevated copper concentrations. Field evidence suggested that abundances of S. sonomacus on beaches where they would be expected to occur under natu...

Based on a spatial model, the Martinique beaches and coastal wetlands are examined to identify the risks of coastal squeeze. In many cases coastal development prevents coasts from adapting by shifting landward. Also tourism infrastructure augments the vulnerability of beach reduction and mangrove squeeze. More than 70% of all Martinique beaches and 29% of mangrove forests are highly endangered ...