To assess the impacts of urbanisation of ghost crab populations, we modelled burrow densities as a function of variables that described the biotic and abiotic properties of 38 sandy beaches in Sydney Harbour.
Predictor variables included those that related to human modification of the beach environments (the presence or
absence of a seawall, the level of development surrounding beaches and the mechanical beach cleaning regime maintained at each beach), the productivity of individual beaches (estimated using wrack accumulation and organic content of sediment) and beach morphology (length, beach slope and sediment grain size).
Previous studies involving human impacts on ghost crabs have been concentrated on open ocean beaches, and to date there have been no studies on beaches in estuarine environments within a large urban centre.