Population biology of yellow crab Johngarthia lagostoma (Brachyura: Gecarcinidae) on Trindad island, Brazil

• Grant number: 19/16581-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Antonio Amaro Pinheiro
• Grantee: Marcio Camargo Araujo João
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The yellow crab Johngarthia lagostoma (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) is a brachyuran crab endemic on oceanic islands, acting as top predator and key species in these environments. Your worldwide distribution is restricted to four islands in Atlantic Ocean: Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas, Ascension and Trindade. At this moment, the fill studies about biology and distribution of J. lagostoma was conducted in Ascension Island, although new discoveries showed a genetic disconnection between four islands, being Trindade population the most isolated. This crab has a coloration pattern varying between yellow and purple, with a distinct spatial distribution inside the islands, occurring in the beaches and tops of mountains. The function of these phenotypic patterns for this species and the regulatory causes of this differential distribution are still unknown. Because your restricted distribution in the world, J. lagostoma is considered as endangered species by the last Brazilian evaluations, lacking further bioecological studies, mainly in Trindade Island, where this species yet was not impacted by anthropogenic sources. The aims of this study are evaluated population biology parameters of yellow crab (J. lagostoma) on Trindade Island, with focus in your relative growth, sexual maturity (morphological, physiological and functional), population structure (sex ratio and recruitment) and describe your coloration patterns. These aspects will be studied in two sand beaches (Andradas e Tartarugas) and two mountains (Platô do Píncipe, with 136m and Morro do Desejado, with 612m), seeking evaluate the variation of these parameters of J. lagostoma in different places of this island. These results will help to understand the population biology of this species in conditions without human impacts and can be used to support future assessments of the conservation status of this species and its risk of extinction. (AU)

Scientific publications

(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)

HERNAEZ, PATRICIO; VILLEGAS-CASTRO, ERICK; JOAO, MARCIO CAMARGO ARAUJO; DUARTE, RAFAEL CAMPOS; RIVADENEIRA, MARCELO M.. Inferring the mating system in the burrowing shrimp Lepidophthalmus bocourti (Decapoda, Axiidea, Callichiridae) from the social structure and sexual dimorphism. BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY, v. 75, n. 6, JUN 2021. (19/01934-3, 19/16581-9)

JOAO, M. C. A.; KRIEGLER, N.; FREIRE, A. S.; AMARO PINHEIRO, M. A.. Mating strategies of the endangered insular land crab Johngarthia lagostoma (H. Milne Edwards, 1837). INVERTEBRATE REPRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT, v. 65, n. 4, AUG 2021. (19/16581-9)

JOAO, MARCIO C. A.; DUARTE, RAFAEL C.; DA SILVA, LETICIA S. BISPO; FREIRE, ANDREA S.; PINHEIRO, MARCELO A. A.. Sexual Maturity of an Endemic Insular Land Crab: Priority Information toward the Conservation of Johngarthia lagostoma. BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN, v. N/A, p. 14-pg., 2022-08-01. (19/16581-9, 19/01934-3)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

JOÃO, Marcio Camargo Araujo. Population biology of the yellow-crab Johngarthia lagostoma (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) (Crustacea: Brachyura: Gecarcinidae), in the Trindade Island, Brazil. 2022. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro Rio Claro.