Population dynamics of portunid crab Charybdis bimaculata in Ise Bay, central Japan

Abstract

The present study dealt with seasonal and interannual variations in the abundance and biomass, and spatio-temporal distributions of the portunid crab Charybdis bimaculata dominant in Ise Bay, central Japan. The abundance and biomass of the crab decreased in summer when the oxygen-poor water developed in central or inner parts of the bay, and then increased through new recruits from autumn (October-November) to the following spring (March-May) when the oxygenpoor water disappeared. Berried females were collected mainly from spring to autumn. Recruits were collected in any season. Particularly in winter, most recruits were located in the innermost part of the bay. According to the cohort separation based on size frequency distribution in carapace width of the crab specimens, the cohorts that were derived from spawning in spring to summer largely contributed to establishing and maintaining the benthic populations for the following year in the bay, whereas those from other seasons failed to recruit because of serious damage caused by the oxygen-poor water. Most crab individuals one year post hatch contributed to spawning and then died by the winter of the same year.

Characterization of complete mitochondrial genome of two-spot swimming crab Charybdis bimaculata (Miers, 1886)

“…Charybdis bimaculata (Miers, 1886) is a small portunid crab, which is mainly caught in Korea, China, and Japan (Rho et al 2005;Gomez et al 2008;Narita et al 2008;Kwak et al 2014). Although it is widely distributed and plays an important role in the benthic ecosystem (Kume et al 1999;Yamaguchi and Taniuchi 2000), ecological study of C. bimaculata has been limited mainly due to its lack of genetic information.…”

Seasonal and habitat structures of crustacean decapod assemblages associated withZostera marinabeds in northern Jinhae Bay, Korea

“…In unvegetated areas, P. macrodactylus (caridean shrimps) and C. bimaculata (crabs) were the most dominant species, although they also occurred in eelgrass beds. Charybdis bimaculata prefer to inhabit silt-clay bottoms in coastal areas (Narita et al ., 2008) and were similarly abundant in other non-vegetated coastal habitats of Korea (e.g. Huh et al ., 2010).…”

Effect of environmental factors, especially hypoxia and typhoons, on recruitment of the gazami crab Portunus trituberculatus in Osaka Bay, Japan

“…However, juvenile blue crabs were unable to avoid hypoxic or anoxic water to any significant extent in the laboratory [26]; therefore, many juvenile crabs may be killed by severe hypoxia, similar to the gazami crab. Failure of juvenile recruitment owing to hypoxia was also observed in Japan for the portunid crab Charybdis bimaculata in Ise Bay [27] and the mantis shrimp Oratosquilla oratoria in Tokyo Bay [28]. The number of typhoons approaching Osaka Bay showed a strong effect on November recruitments and a weak effect on August recruitments.…”