Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:41:11.286Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of beach morphodynamic features on production and P/B ratio of the crab Emerita brasiliensis Schmitt, 1935 (Decapoda: Hippidae) in sandy beaches of South America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

Marcelo Petracco*
Affiliation:
Faculdade de Oceanografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Laboratório de Pesquisa e Monitoramento Ambiental Marinho (LAPMAR), Instituto de Geociências (UFPA), Rua Augusto Corrêa, 1, Guamá, Belém, Pará, CEP 66075-110, Brazil
Ricardo Silva Cardoso
Affiliation:
Depto. Ecologia e Recursos Marinhos, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Av. Pasteur, 458, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 22290-240, Brazil
José Eduardo Martinelli Filho
Affiliation:
Faculdade de Oceanografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Laboratório de Pesquisa e Monitoramento Ambiental Marinho (LAPMAR), Instituto de Geociências (UFPA), Rua Augusto Corrêa, 1, Guamá, Belém, Pará, CEP 66075-110, Brazil
Alexander Turra
Affiliation:
Depto. Oceanografia Biológica, Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Praça do Oceanográfico, 191, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-120, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to:M. Petracco, Faculdade de Oceanografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Laboratório de Pesquisa e Monitoramento Ambiental Marinho (LAPMAR), Instituto de Geociências (UFPA), Rua Augusto Corrêa, 1, Guamá, Belém, Pará, CEP 66075-110, Brazil email: [email protected]

Abstract

The mole crab Emerita brasiliensis inhabits exposed sandy beaches, both reflective and dissipative, along the Atlantic coast of South America, where it usually attains high biomass and production. We assessed the effects of physical characteristics of beaches (mean grain size, beach width and slope) on production and turnover rate (P/B ratio) of E. brasiliensis. Six production and P/B ratio datasets, estimated with cohort-based and size-based methods, were gathered from studies carried out on subtropical (~25°S) and temperate beaches (~32°S). Based on the estimates available, general trends were identified. Production was positively related to the intermediate/dissipative conditions of wider beaches with finer sand grains and gentler slopes. P/B ratio was negatively related to grain size (mm) and positively related to beach width. These results suggest that P/B ratios also increase towards intermediate/dissipative features due to higher growth rate, as indicated by higher values of the curvature parameter of the von Bertalanffy growth function (K) in more benign conditions (wider beaches with finer grains). In addition, the recurrent pattern of size structure on intermediate/dissipative beaches, with high frequency of recruits, leads to higher P/B ratio estimates on these beaches than on reflective beaches. The relationship of production and P/B ratio with physical features, such as mean grain size, beach width and slope indicates that a ‘short-cut’ approach to estimate Emerita brasiliensis production is a promising prospect and, therefore, more data on the production of this species should be provided.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, K.R. (1971) Relation between production and biomass. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 28, 15731581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benke, A.C. (1993) Concepts and patterns of invertebrate production in running waters. Verhandlungen des Internationalen Verein Limnologie 25, 1528.Google Scholar
Benke, A.C. (1996) Secondary production of macroinvertebrates. In Hauer, F.R. and Lamberti, G.A. (eds) Methods in stream ecology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 557578.Google Scholar
Benke, A.C. and Huryn, A.D. (2006) Secondary production of macroinvertebrates. In Hauer, F.R. and Lamberti, G.A. (eds) Methods in stream ecology. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press, pp. 691710.Google Scholar
Beukema, J.J. and Dekker, R. (2013) Evaluation of Brey's production/biomass on the basis of a long term set on a clam population. Marine Ecology Progress Series 489, 163175.Google Scholar
Brey, T. (2001) Population dynamics in benthic invertebrates. A virtual handbook. Version 1.2. Bremerhaven: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. www.thomas-brey.de/science/virtualhandbook.Google Scholar
Cardoso, R.S. and Veloso, V.G. (2003) Population dynamics and secondary production of the wedge clam Donax hanleyanus on a high energy, subtropical beach of Brazil. Marine Biology 142, 153162.Google Scholar
Cardoso, R.S., Veloso, V.G. and Caetano, C.H.S. (2003) Life history of Emerita brasiliensis (Decapoda, Hippidae) on two beaches with different morphodynamic characteristics. Journal of Coastal Research 35(SI), 392401.Google Scholar
Celentano, E. and Defeo, O. (2006) Habitat harshness and morphodynamics: life history traits of the mole crab Emerita brasiliensis in Uruguayan sandy beaches. Marine Biology 149, 14531461.Google Scholar
Celentano, E., Gutiérrez, N. and Defeo, O. (2010) Effects of morphodynamic and estuarine gradients on a sandy beach mole crab demography and distribution: implications for source–sink habitat dynamics. Marine Ecology Progress Series 398, 193205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cusson, M. and Bourget, E. (2005) Global patterns of macroinvertebrate production in marine benthic habitats. Marine Ecology Progress Series 297, 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defeo, O. and Cardoso, R.S. (2002) Macroecology of population dynamics and life history traits of the mole crab Emerita brasiliensis in Atlantic sandy beaches of South America. Marine Ecology Progress Series 239, 169179.Google Scholar
Defeo, O. and Cardoso, R.S. (2004) Latitudinal patterns in abundance and life-history traits of the mole crab Emerita brasiliensis on South American sandy beaches. Diversity and Distributions 10, 8998.Google Scholar
Defeo, O. and Gómez, J. (2005) Morphodynamics and habitat safety in sandy beaches: life-history adaptations in a supralittoral amphipod. Marine Ecology Progress Series 293, 143153.Google Scholar
Defeo, O., Gómez, J. and Lercari, D. (2001) Testing the swash exclusion hypothesis in sandy beach populations: the mole crab Emerita brasiliensis in Uruguay. Marine Ecology Progress Series 212, 159170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defeo, O. and Martínez, G. (2003) The habitat harshness hypothesis revisited: life history of the isopod Excirolana braziliensis in sandy beaches with contrasting morphodynamics. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 83, 331340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defeo, O. and McLachlan, A. (2005) Patterns, processes and regulatory mechanisms in sandy beach macrofauna: a multi-scale analysis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 295, 120.Google Scholar
Defeo, O. and McLachlan, A. (2011) Coupling between macrofauna community structure and beach type: a deconstructive meta-analysis. Marine Ecology Progress Series 433, 2941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defeo, O. and McLachlan, A. (2013) Global patterns of sandy beach macrofauna: species richness, abundance, biomass and body size. Geomorphology 199, 106114.Google Scholar
Gianuca, N.M. (1985) Ecology of a sandy beach in Southern Brazil. PhD thesis, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.Google Scholar
Hair, J., Black, B., Babin, B., Anderson, R. and Tatham, R. (2006) Multivariate data analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Herrmann, M., Carstensen, D., Fisher, S., Laudien, J., Penchaszadeh, P.E. and Arntz, W.E. (2009) Population structure, growth, and production of the wedge clam Donax hanleyanus (Bivalvia: Donacidae) from Northern Argentinean beaches. Journal of Shellfish Research 28, 511526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huryn, A.D. and Benke, A.C. (2007) Relationship between biomass turnover and body size for stream communities. In Hildrew, A., Raffaelli, D. and Edmonds-Brown, R. (eds) Body size: the structure and function on aquatic ecosystems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 5576.Google Scholar
Huryn, A.D. and Wallace, J.B. (2000) Life history and production of stream insects. Annual Review of Entomology 45, 83110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLachlan, A. (1980) Exposed sandy beaches as semi-closed ecosystems. Marine Environmental Research 4, 5963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLachlan, A. (1983) Sandy beach ecology – a review. In McLachlan, A. & Erasmus, T. (eds) Sandy beaches as ecosystems. The Hague: W. Junk, pp. 321380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLachlan, A. and Dorvlo, A. (2005) Global patterns in sandy beach macrobenthic communities. Journal of Coastal Research 21, 674687.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petracco, M., Cardoso, R.S., Corbisier, T.N. and Turra, A. (2012a) Production on Brazilian sandy beaches macrofauna: a review. Brazilian Journal of Oceanography 64, 473484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petracco, M., Cardoso, R.S., Corbisier, T.N. and Turra, A. (2012b) Secondary production of sandy beach macrofauna: an evaluation of predictive models. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 115, 359365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petracco, M., Cardoso, R.S. and Turra, A. (2013) Patterns of sandy beach macrofauna. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 93, 17171725.Google Scholar
Petracco, M., Cardoso, R.S., Turra, A. and Corbisier, T.N. (2012c) Production of Excirolana armata (Dana, 1853) (Isopoda, Cirolanidae) on an exposed sandy beach in Southeastern Brazil. Helgoland Marine Research 66, 265274.Google Scholar
Petracco, M., Veloso, V.G. and Cardoso, R.S. (2003) Population dynamics and secondary production of Emerita brasiliensis (Crustacea: Hippidae) at Prainha Beach, Brazil. Marine Ecology 24, 385391.Google Scholar
Robertson, A.I. (1979) The relationship between annual production:biomass ratio and lifespan for marine macrobenthos. Oecologia 38, 193202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Short, A.D. (1996) The role of wave weight, period, slope, tide range and embaymentisation in beach classifications: a review. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 69, 589604.Google Scholar
Veloso, V.G. and Cardoso, R.S. (1999) Population biology of the mole crab Emerita brasiliensis (Decapoda:Hippidae) at Urca beach, Brazil. Journal of Crustacean Biology 19, 147153.Google Scholar
Veloso, V.G., Cardoso, R.S. and Petracco, M. (2003) Secondary production of the intertidal macrofauna of Prainha beach, Brazil. Journal of Coastal Research 35(SI), 385391.Google Scholar
Veloso, V.G. and Sallorenzo, I.A. (2010) Differences in the secondary production of Emerita brasiliensis (Decapoda: Hippidae) on two sandy beaches in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Nauplius 18, 5768.Google Scholar
Zar, J.H. (1999) Biostatistical analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Zuur, A., Ieno, E.N., Walker, N., Saveliev, A.A. and Smith, G.M. (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. New York, NY: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar