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Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community

BACKGROUND: Lethargic Crab Disease (LCD) has caused significant mortalities in the population of Ucides cordatus crabs in the Mucuri estuary in Bahia State, Brazil, and has brought social and economic problems to many crab-harvesting communities that depend on this natural resource. The present work...

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Autores principales: Firmo, Angélica MS, Tognella, Mônica MP, Có, Walter LO, Barboza, Raynner RD, Alves, Rômulo RN
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22087532
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-34
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author Firmo, Angélica MS
Tognella, Mônica MP
Có, Walter LO
Barboza, Raynner RD
Alves, Rômulo RN
author_facet Firmo, Angélica MS
Tognella, Mônica MP
Có, Walter LO
Barboza, Raynner RD
Alves, Rômulo RN
author_sort Firmo, Angélica MS
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Lethargic Crab Disease (LCD) has caused significant mortalities in the population of Ucides cordatus crabs in the Mucuri estuary in Bahia State, Brazil, and has brought social and economic problems to many crab-harvesting communities that depend on this natural resource. The present work examined the perceptions of members of a Brazilian crab harvesting community concerning environmental changes and the Lethargic Crab Disease. METHODS: Field work was undertaken during the period between January and April/2009, with weekly or biweekly field excursions during which open and semi-structured interviews were held with local residents in the municipality of Mucuri, Bahia State, Brazil. A total of 23 individuals were interviewed, all of whom had at least 20 years of crab-collecting experience in the study region. Key-informants (more experienced crab harvesters) were selected among the interviewees using the "native specialist" criterion. RESULTS: According to the collectors, LCD reached the Mucuri mangroves between 2004 and 2005, decimating almost all crab population in the area, and in 2007, 2008 and 2009 high mortalities of U. cordatus were again observed as a result of recurrences of this disease in the region. In addition to LCD, crabs were also suffering great stock reductions due to habitat degradation caused by deforestation, landfills, sewage effluents, domestic and industrial wastes and the introduction of exotic fish in the Mucuri River estuary. The harvesting community was found to have significant ecological knowledge about the functioning of mangrove swamp ecology, the biology of crabs, and the mass mortality that directly affected the economy of this community, and this information was largely in accordance with scientific knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The study of traditional knowledge makes it possible to better understand human interactions with the environment and aids in the elaboration of appropriate strategies for natural resource conservation.
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spelling pubmed-32265822011-11-30 Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community Firmo, Angélica MS Tognella, Mônica MP Có, Walter LO Barboza, Raynner RD Alves, Rômulo RN J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: Lethargic Crab Disease (LCD) has caused significant mortalities in the population of Ucides cordatus crabs in the Mucuri estuary in Bahia State, Brazil, and has brought social and economic problems to many crab-harvesting communities that depend on this natural resource. The present work examined the perceptions of members of a Brazilian crab harvesting community concerning environmental changes and the Lethargic Crab Disease. METHODS: Field work was undertaken during the period between January and April/2009, with weekly or biweekly field excursions during which open and semi-structured interviews were held with local residents in the municipality of Mucuri, Bahia State, Brazil. A total of 23 individuals were interviewed, all of whom had at least 20 years of crab-collecting experience in the study region. Key-informants (more experienced crab harvesters) were selected among the interviewees using the "native specialist" criterion. RESULTS: According to the collectors, LCD reached the Mucuri mangroves between 2004 and 2005, decimating almost all crab population in the area, and in 2007, 2008 and 2009 high mortalities of U. cordatus were again observed as a result of recurrences of this disease in the region. In addition to LCD, crabs were also suffering great stock reductions due to habitat degradation caused by deforestation, landfills, sewage effluents, domestic and industrial wastes and the introduction of exotic fish in the Mucuri River estuary. The harvesting community was found to have significant ecological knowledge about the functioning of mangrove swamp ecology, the biology of crabs, and the mass mortality that directly affected the economy of this community, and this information was largely in accordance with scientific knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The study of traditional knowledge makes it possible to better understand human interactions with the environment and aids in the elaboration of appropriate strategies for natural resource conservation. BioMed Central 2011-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3226582/ /pubmed/22087532 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-34 Text en Copyright ©2011 Firmo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Firmo, Angélica MS
Tognella, Mônica MP
Có, Walter LO
Barboza, Raynner RD
Alves, Rômulo RN
Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title_full Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title_fullStr Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title_short Perceptions of environmental changes and Lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a Brazilian coastal community
title_sort perceptions of environmental changes and lethargic crab disease among crab harvesters in a brazilian coastal community
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22087532
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-34
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