Estuarine keystone species in a changing world: how early life-history stages of fiddler crabs will respond to coastal ocean warming and acidification?

• Grant number: 18/00577-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Grantee: Juan Carlos Farias Pardo
• Supervisor: Stefano Cannicci
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Hong Kong (HKU), China
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/00802-0 - Estuarine keystone species in a changing world: how early life-history stages of fiddler crabs will respond to coastal ocean warming and acidification?, BP.MS

Abstract

The understanding of how global warming may affect the structure of ecosystems is a key topic in climate change studies. Estuarine and coastal habitats impose stressful conditions to their native species and ectotherms are particularly sensitive to climate warming. Several studies demonstrated the thermal limits of different species and development stages; however, the thermal tolerance of ovigerous females itself is still not explored. The aim of this proposal is to evaluate the effects of global warming in ovigerous females of fiddler crabs. We will (1) verify the habitat range temperature during embryo development and (2) the thermal limit (heart beat rate and lethal temperature as response variable) of ovigerous and non-ovigerous female from different species of fiddler crabs living in similar habitats. Field and lab experiments conducted in Brazil and Hong Kong will bring a wider perspective of the physiological effects of temperature increase in an underexplored reproductive status of a key-stone estuarine species. (AU)