Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient
The exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus, an important ecosystem engineer in South American mangroves, has a biphasic lifecycle with pelagic larvae developing offshore. Megalopae return to the mangrove forest to settle, i.e., metamorphose into benthic juveniles but its environmental drivers rema...
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Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Ocean and Coastal Research |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.usp.br/ocr/article/view/222880 |
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| author | Anders Jensen Schmidt Karen Diele |
| author_facet | Anders Jensen Schmidt Karen Diele |
| author_sort | Anders Jensen Schmidt |
| collection | DOAJ |
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The exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus, an important ecosystem engineer in South American mangroves, has a biphasic lifecycle with pelagic larvae developing offshore. Megalopae return to the mangrove forest to settle, i.e., metamorphose into benthic juveniles but its environmental drivers remain poorly understood. We postulate that conspecific crabs facilitate recruitment. In the field, we investigated whether the number of recruits is higher near conspecific burrows than in areas without conspecific bioturbation. Recruit sampling was conducted monthly from April 2008 to May 2009 along an environmental gradient. First, U. cordatus recruits of that year emerged from March to July. Intraspecific facilitation was indicated by significantly higher recruit numbers in bioturbated than in non-bioturbated substrates. Recruits were most abundant in zones with intermediate conditions of inundation, leaf litter standing stock, sediment consistency, luminosity, temperature, salinity, and pH. Avoidance of more inundated zones likely reduces predation by fishes and of less inundated zones helps individuals escape more stressful, drier environmental conditions. The observed habitat-specific recruitment pattern must be considered when designing field assessments of the population structure of U. cordatus (which should include sampling recruits) and enhancing stocks by releasing laboratory-cultivated larvae and first juveniles into the wild.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ac2035f4b20a41d4a426e059b6fb01c3 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2675-2824 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ocean and Coastal Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-ac2035f4b20a41d4a426e059b6fb01c32025-08-20T02:20:09ZengInstituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São PauloOcean and Coastal Research2675-28242024-04-0172Suppl. 1Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradientAnders Jensen Schmidt0Karen Diele1Universidade Federal do Sul da BahiaFundação Universidade Federal do Rio Grande The exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus, an important ecosystem engineer in South American mangroves, has a biphasic lifecycle with pelagic larvae developing offshore. Megalopae return to the mangrove forest to settle, i.e., metamorphose into benthic juveniles but its environmental drivers remain poorly understood. We postulate that conspecific crabs facilitate recruitment. In the field, we investigated whether the number of recruits is higher near conspecific burrows than in areas without conspecific bioturbation. Recruit sampling was conducted monthly from April 2008 to May 2009 along an environmental gradient. First, U. cordatus recruits of that year emerged from March to July. Intraspecific facilitation was indicated by significantly higher recruit numbers in bioturbated than in non-bioturbated substrates. Recruits were most abundant in zones with intermediate conditions of inundation, leaf litter standing stock, sediment consistency, luminosity, temperature, salinity, and pH. Avoidance of more inundated zones likely reduces predation by fishes and of less inundated zones helps individuals escape more stressful, drier environmental conditions. The observed habitat-specific recruitment pattern must be considered when designing field assessments of the population structure of U. cordatus (which should include sampling recruits) and enhancing stocks by releasing laboratory-cultivated larvae and first juveniles into the wild. https://journals.usp.br/ocr/article/view/222880BioturbationBurrowLand crabSettlementUcides |
| spellingShingle | Anders Jensen Schmidt Karen Diele Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient Ocean and Coastal Research Bioturbation Burrow Land crab Settlement Ucides |
| title | Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| title_full | Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| title_fullStr | Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| title_short | Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| title_sort | intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient |
| topic | Bioturbation Burrow Land crab Settlement Ucides |
| url | https://journals.usp.br/ocr/article/view/222880 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT andersjensenschmidt intraspecificfacilitationoftherecruitmentofaburrowingmangrovecrabspeciesalonganenvironmentalgradient AT karendiele intraspecificfacilitationoftherecruitmentofaburrowingmangrovecrabspeciesalonganenvironmentalgradient |