Feeding ecology of the American crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Crustacea, Decapoda) in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea

Hegele-Drywa, Joanna; Normant, Monika

doi:10.5697/oc.51-3.361

Cited by 34 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Dietary proportions are expressed as the median and 95 % Bayesian credible intervals for each of the two water exchange regimes with lagoons entered as categorical covariates. Selection of possible prey items used in the mixing model, for the non-native species was based on: stomach content analysis performed in a parallel study for the non-native shrimp P. macrodactylus and the native shrimp P. varians (Moghaddam 2012), the non-native fishes Fundulus heteroclitus heteroclitus Linnaeus and Gambusia affinis Baird & Girard (Deamer-John 2012), and the literature for the non-native corixid Trichocorixa verticalis Fieber and the non-native crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii Gould (Kelts 1979;Hegele-Drywa and Normant 2009;Simonis 2012). Important prey items for other fish species were selected using Fishbase (2012).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of water management on extensive aquaculture food webs in the reconstructed wetlands of the Doñana Natural Park, Southern Spain

et al. 2015

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Extensive aquaculture in coastal and estuarine wetlands can support both increased food production and wider ecosystem services when underpinned by effective management to promote productivity and hence food webs that support both commercial species and biodiversity. Changing hydrology, specifically water movement, within wetlands significantly impacts the physico-chemical properties of the water body and hence can be employed to manipulate productivity and alter patterns of recruitment of commercial species and may also transfer non-native species from the supplying water bodies. The reconstructed wetlands of Veta la Palma in the Doñana Natural Park are subjected to either a 1 % or 5 % d -1 water exchange with water drawn from the adjacent Guadalquivir estuary. This site provides an excellent opportunity for examining the effect of water management on the food webs that support both the birdlife and aquaculture activities for which this habitat is managed. Stable isotopes were used to examine food webs in three replicate lagoons under each water management scheme. In lagoons receiving higher water exchange, phytoplankton productivity appeared to be more important than benthic production in supporting food webs. Increased water exchange also changed the shape of the food webs, facilitated the colonisation of at least one non-native species and increased the importance of non-native species in the diets of large commercially harvested fish (> 60 % of seabass diet). Lagoons with high water flows also had between three and four times greater shrimp biomass than those of low flow lagoons. Non-native fauna were opportunistic omnivores, eating marginally more non-natives in lagoons with greater water exchange. Overall non-native cordgrass Spartina densiflora contributed only slightly more to food webs compared with the native reed Phragmites australis, despite the lagoon edge occupancy ratio of 9:1, respectively. Nonnatives also appear to enhance food provision for large predators and wetland birds, by increasing biomass, without competing for resources with native species, supporting the dual management objectives of aquaculture and waterbird conservation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of water management on extensive aquaculture food webs in the reconstructed wetlands of the Doñana Natural Park, Southern Spain

et al. 2015

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“…In its invasive range mud crabs occur from exposed hard bottoms to sheltered soft bottoms that are either unvegetated or vegetated 18 . Within these habitats the mud crab has a very broad diet potentially including macroalgae and benthic invertebrates 21 , either sessile and mobile species 22 , and the diet composition is largely driven by prey availability 23 . Currently, the Baltic Sea provides R .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel crab predator causes marine ecosystem regime shift

Kotta

Wernberg

Jänes

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The escalating spread of invasive species increases the risk of disrupting the pathways of energy flow through native ecosystems, modify the relative importance of resource (‘bottom-up’) and consumer (‘top-down’) control in food webs and thereby govern biomass production at different trophic levels. The current lack of understanding of interaction cascades triggered by non-indigenous species underscores the need for more basic exploratory research to assess the degree to which novel species regulate bottom-up and/or top down control. Novel predators are expected to produce the strongest effects by decimating consumers, and leading to the blooms of primary producers. Here we show how the arrival of the invasive crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii into the Baltic Sea – a bottom-up controlled ecosystem where no equivalent predators ever existed – appeared to trigger not only strong top-down control resulting in a decline in richness and biomass of benthic invertebrates, but also an increase in pelagic nutrients and phytoplankton biomass. Thus, the addition of a novel interaction – crab predation – to an ecosystem has a potential to reduce the relative importance of bottom-up regulation, relax benthic-pelagic coupling and reallocate large amounts of nutrients from benthic to pelagic processes, resulting in a regime shift to a degraded ecosystem state.

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“…In addition, estuarine intertidal crabs feeding in different parts of an estuary could face not only distinct tidal patterns but also different predation pressures and food resources. Therefore, variations in feeding activity and diet are expected (Ryer ; Heguele‐Drywa & Normant ). Feeding of intertidal crabs, active at low tide, or moving in shallow clear coastal waters, can be directly seen in natural conditions (Wolfrath ; Cannicci et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of tidal regime, diurnal phase, habitat and season on feeding of an intertidal crab

et al. 2013

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The relationship between diet and feeding activity of intertidal crabs, and environmental cycles (tidal, daily and seasonal), habitat and level of the intertidal zone (high/low) was studied using Neohelice granulata (Brachyura, Varunidae) as a model. This is a semi‐terrestrial burrowing crab occupying different habitats in the Southwestern Atlantic coasts and estuaries from bare low intertidal mudflats to high intertidal salt marshes, and from fine, organic matter rich sediment to very coarse sediment with low content of organic matter. The study was carried out in two contrasting habitats of three sites with diverse sets of physical and biological conditions. Diet and feeding of adult N. granulata were indirectly studied through the proportion of food items and the presence/absence of food in crab stomachs, respectively. This species has a dual mode of feeding: predominantly herbivorous (live plants or plant litter in salt marshes) or deposit feeder (superficial sediment and detritus in mudflats), but the quantity and quality of ingested food varies among habitats and sites. A trend to omnivory (including algae and conspecifics) was detected in relation to low quality of resources. Feeding activity modulated by a complex interaction of factors varied according to spatial and/or temporal changes in some natural cycles. Males and non‐ovigerous females fed preferably after dark and during submersion periods, but also after emersion periods if mudflat sediment remained wet; salt marsh crab feeding is somewhat independent of light and tidal cycles. Ovigerous females almost never fed. Both diet and feeding activity of this crab seem to be flexible traits adapted to different combinations of physical and biological factors.

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Feeding ecology of the American crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii (Crustacea, Decapoda) in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea

Cited by 34 publications

References 34 publications

The effect of water management on extensive aquaculture food webs in the reconstructed wetlands of the Doñana Natural Park, Southern Spain

The effect of water management on extensive aquaculture food webs in the reconstructed wetlands of the Doñana Natural Park, Southern Spain

Novel crab predator causes marine ecosystem regime shift

Influence of tidal regime, diurnal phase, habitat and season on feeding of an intertidal crab

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