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The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus
The physiological condition and fecundity of an organism is frequently controlled by diet. As changes in environmental conditions often cause organisms to alter their foraging behavior, a comprehensive understanding of how diet influences the fitness of an individual is central to predicting the eff...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145481 |
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author | Belgrad, Benjamin A. Griffen, Blaine D. |
author_facet | Belgrad, Benjamin A. Griffen, Blaine D. |
author_sort | Belgrad, Benjamin A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The physiological condition and fecundity of an organism is frequently controlled by diet. As changes in environmental conditions often cause organisms to alter their foraging behavior, a comprehensive understanding of how diet influences the fitness of an individual is central to predicting the effect of environmental change on population dynamics. We experimentally manipulated the diet of the economically and ecologically important blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, to approximate the effects of a dietary shift from primarily animal to plant tissue, a phenomenon commonly documented in crabs. Crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of animal tissue had markedly lower mortality and consumed substantially more food than crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of seaweed. The quantity of food consumed had a significant positive influence on reproductive effort and long-term energy stores. Additionally, seaweed diets produced a three-fold decrease in hepatopancreas lipid content and a simultaneous two-fold increase in crab aggression when compared to an animal diet. Our results reveal that the consumption of animal tissue substantially enhanced C. sapidus fitness, and suggest that a dietary shift to plant tissue may reduce crab population growth by decreasing fecundity as well as increasing mortality. This study has implications for C. sapidus fisheries. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4718683 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47186832016-01-30 The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus Belgrad, Benjamin A. Griffen, Blaine D. PLoS One Research Article The physiological condition and fecundity of an organism is frequently controlled by diet. As changes in environmental conditions often cause organisms to alter their foraging behavior, a comprehensive understanding of how diet influences the fitness of an individual is central to predicting the effect of environmental change on population dynamics. We experimentally manipulated the diet of the economically and ecologically important blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, to approximate the effects of a dietary shift from primarily animal to plant tissue, a phenomenon commonly documented in crabs. Crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of animal tissue had markedly lower mortality and consumed substantially more food than crabs whose diet consisted exclusively of seaweed. The quantity of food consumed had a significant positive influence on reproductive effort and long-term energy stores. Additionally, seaweed diets produced a three-fold decrease in hepatopancreas lipid content and a simultaneous two-fold increase in crab aggression when compared to an animal diet. Our results reveal that the consumption of animal tissue substantially enhanced C. sapidus fitness, and suggest that a dietary shift to plant tissue may reduce crab population growth by decreasing fecundity as well as increasing mortality. This study has implications for C. sapidus fisheries. Public Library of Science 2016-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4718683/ /pubmed/26784581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145481 Text en © 2016 Belgrad, Griffen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Belgrad, Benjamin A. Griffen, Blaine D. The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title | The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title_full | The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title_fullStr | The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title_full_unstemmed | The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title_short | The Influence of Diet Composition on Fitness of the Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus |
title_sort | influence of diet composition on fitness of the blue crab, callinectes sapidus |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145481 |
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