Behavioural ecology of Ocypodoidea crabs

• Grant number: 10/09763-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2011
• End date: October 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Grantee: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Karine Delevati Colpo ; Rodrigo Egydio Barreto ; Ronaldo Adriano Christofoletti
• Associated research grant(s): 13/50393-9 - Impacts of climate change on benthonic communities along São Paulo's coasts: focus on decapod crustaceans, AP.PFPMCG.R

Abstract

The mangrove is an important system for studies on ecological processes related to primary production and nutrient cycling. This project has the aim of evaluate the predation and behavioral processes influences on the dynamics of mangroves. Therefore, the ecological patterns of Uca sp., Ucides cordatus e Goniopsis cruentata (feeding pattern, burrowing pattern and density), their wide geographic distribution and use as models in behavioral and ecological studies in mangroves, justify their use as experimental models to test 3 important questions: a) the Uca sp. activity on the sediment bioturbation; b) the impact of the density of detritivorous crabs on nutrient cycling; c) the impact of a predator (G. cruentata) in the top-down processes and trophic cascade. Two hypotheses will be tested: I: the Uca sp. activity in mangroves is responsible for the sediment bioturbation; II: the abundance of mobile consumers is responsible for the top-down processes structuring mangroves communities. As mangroves have a stable primary production (without huge changes), its consumers (detritivorous or predators) can reduce significantly the abundance and biomass of their feeding resource (through indirect behavioral interactions and also dense-dependent), the results will allow to infer on the importance of such consumers regulating direct or indirectly the feeding resource availability for others species, the nutrients cycle and the trophic cascade effect (top-down processes) influencing the primary productivity in this ecosystem. (AU)

Scientific publications

(11)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

PRISCILA GRANADO; FERNANDO RAFAEL DE GRANDE; TÂNIA MARCIA COSTA. Association of Epialtus brasiliensis Dana, 1852 (Brachyura, Majoidea) with different species of seaweed. Nauplius, v. 28, 2020-02-21. (10/09763-9)

DE GRANDE, FERNANDO RAFAEL; CANNICCI, STEFANO; COSTA, TANIA MARCIA. Can fiddler crabs detect underwater predators? A laboratory test with Leptuca thayeri. ETHOLOGY ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, v. 31, n. 1, p. 86-97, JAN 2 2019. (13/06472-1, 16/08687-3, 10/09763-9)

RODRIGUES, R. DE O.; COSTA, T. M.; BARRETO, R. E.. Burrow ornamentation in the fiddler crab (Uca leptodactyla): female mate choice and male-male competition. MARINE AND FRESHWATER BEHAVIOUR AND PHYSIOLOGY, v. 49, n. 5, p. 317-325, 2016. (10/09763-9)

NATALIO, LUIS F.; PARDO, JUAN C. F.; MACHADO, GLAUCO B. O.; FORTUNA, MONIQUE D.; GALLO, DEBORAH G.; COSTA, TANIA M.. Potential effect of fiddler crabs on organic matter distribution: A combined laboratory and field experimental approach. ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE, v. 184, p. 158-165, JAN 5 2017. (12/00210-2, 10/01252-5, 10/09763-9, 11/23611-0)

DE GRANDE, FERNANDO R.; COLPO, KARINE D.; QUEIROGA, HENRIQUE; CANNICCI, STEFANO; COSTA, TANIA M.. Contrasting activity patterns at high and low tide in two Brazilian fiddler crabs (Decapoda: Brachyura: Ocypodidae). JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, v. 38, n. 4, p. 407-412, JUL 2018. (10/09763-9, 16/08687-3)

STEFANELLI-SILVA, GABRIEL; PARDO, JUAN C. F.; PAIXAO, PAULO; COSTA, TANIA M.. University Extension and Informal Education: Useful Tools for Bottom-Up Ocean and Coastal Literacy of Primary School Children in Brazil. FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE, v. 6, JUL 9 2019. (10/09763-9)

CITADIN, MONICA; COSTA, TANIA MARCIA; NETTO, SERGIO A.. The response of meiofauna and microphytobenthos to engineering effects of fiddler crabs on a subtropical intertidal sandflat. AUSTRAL ECOLOGY, v. 41, n. 5, p. 572-579, AUG 2016. (10/09763-9)

SANCHES, FABIO H. C.; DE GRANDE, FERNANDO R.; COSTA, TANIA M.; BARRETO, RODRIGO E.. Sharing is living: The role of habitat heterogeneity in the coexistence of closely related species. ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, v. 13, n. 3, p. 14-pg., 2023-03-01. (15/50300-6, 10/09763-9)

PARDO, JUAN C. F.; STEFANELLI-SILVA, GABRIEL; CHRISTY, JOHN H.; COSTA, TANIA M.. Fiddler crabs and their above-ground sedimentary structures: a review. JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY, v. 38, n. 2, p. 137-154, MAY 2020. (11/23611-0, 10/09763-9)

CARVALHO, RENAN D.; PARDO, JUAN C. F.; COSTA, TANIA M.. Construction and structure of the semidomes of the fiddler crab Minuca rapax (Brachyura: Ocypodidae) in southern Brazil. JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, v. 38, n. 2, p. 241-244, MAR 2018. (10/09763-9)

FOGO, BRUNO R.; SANCHES, FABIO H. C.; COSTA, TANIA M.. Testing the dear enemy relationship in fiddler crabs: Is there a difference between fighting conspecific and heterospecific opponents?. Behavioural Processes, v. 162, p. 90-96, MAY 2019. (10/09763-9)