External morphology of Ucides cordatus (Linnaeus, 1763) (Crustacea, Brachyura, Ocypodidae) digged burrows and their magnetic north orientation

• Grant number: 05/00269-3
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2005
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2006
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal researcher: Marcelo Antonio Amaro Pinheiro
• Grantee: Camila Mayumi Hirata dos Santos
• Home Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present study aims to characterize the external morphology of the burrows digged in mangrove sediment by the ocypodid crab Ucides cordatus (Linnaeus, 1763). The burrow orientation will be register according to the magnetic north and associate with U. cordatus morphotypes (males, females, and ovigerous females). The burrow and crab data will be collect from March to September/2005, in two mangrove areas with different water inundation degree (high mangrove = low water inundation degree; low mangrove = high water inundation degree), but same vegetation predominance (Laguncularia racemosa). The external morphology of the burrows will be described and associated to biogenic parameters (crab track vestige and external mud deposit), biometry (relationship between opening diameter and crab carapace width), biology (morphotype and sex), and physics (declivity and open orientation of the burrow according to magnetic north). The association among burrow dig pattern in each sex and inundation degree in each mangrove area will be evaluate. A crab dig pattern description of each sex will help to elaborate management protocols to preserve this crab species. These results bring a high precision in population structure estimative, and added to II Uçá Project (FAPESP # 02/05614-2) results.

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)

DOS SANTOS, CAMILA M. H.; PINHEIRO, MARCELO A. A.; HATTORI, GUSTAVO Y. Orientation and external morphology of burrows of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus (Crustacea: Brachyura: Ucididae). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, v. 89, n. 6, p. 1117-1123, SEP 2009. Web of Science Citations: 6.