ABSTRACT Fiddler crabs are numerically dominant consumers within salt marshes and understanding how their behavior is influenced by human activities can therefore shed light on the health of disturbed marsh communities. We investigated how various levels of human influence in South Carolina salt marshes alter male waving behavior in the sand fiddler crab Leptuca pugilator across 21 marsh sites. We show that male waving behavior decreases with increasing levels of human influence across these sites (i.e., car and pedestrian traffic, marsh size). Given the central role of male waving in L. pugilator reproduction, territoriality, and other intra- and interspecific interactions, our results show that human influence in salt marsh habitats has the potential to directly alter the success of this widespread marsh consumer. This study highlights the importance of studying the influence of anthropogenic disturbances on behavior of salt marsh species as human presence in coastal areas continues to grow.

中文翻译：

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人类对招潮蟹 Leptuca pugilator 雄性挥舞行为的影响

摘要招潮蟹是盐沼中数量上占主导地位的消费者，因此了解它们的行为如何受到人类活动的影响可以揭示受干扰的沼泽社区的健康状况。我们调查了南卡罗来纳州盐沼中不同程度的人类影响如何改变 21 个沼泽地点的沙提琴蟹 Leptuca pugilator 的雄性挥舞行为。我们表明，随着人类对这些地点（即汽车和行人交通、沼泽大小）的影响程度的增加，男性挥手行为会减少。鉴于雄性挥手在 L. pugilator 繁殖、领土性和其他种内和种间相互作用中的核心作用，我们的结果表明，人类对盐沼栖息地的影响有可能直接改变这种广泛的沼泽消费者的成功。