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Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore
Predation can strongly influence community structure and ecosystem function, so the loss of key predators can have dramatic ecological consequences, unless other predatory species in the system are capable of playing similar ecological roles. In light of the recent outbreak of sea star wasting disea...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5570281/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28837597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183064 |
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author | Hull, Wesley W. Bourdeau, Paul E. |
author_facet | Hull, Wesley W. Bourdeau, Paul E. |
author_sort | Hull, Wesley W. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Predation can strongly influence community structure and ecosystem function, so the loss of key predators can have dramatic ecological consequences, unless other predatory species in the system are capable of playing similar ecological roles. In light of the recent outbreak of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) and subsequent depletion of west coast sea star populations, including those of the keystone predator Pisaster ochraceus, we examined whether large mobile crabs could play a role as predators on mussels (Mytilus californianus) on a rocky shore in Northern California. Using a combination of sea star removal and predator exclusion cages we found that mussel mortality was 43–294 times greater in uncaged treatments versus caged treatments. Mortality on uncaged mussels at low tidal elevations was due to predation by large mobile crabs (Cancer productus and Romaleon antennarium); confirmed by the presence of mussel shell fragments and documented attacks on wax snail replicas. Laboratory feeding assays indicated that crabs, on a per unit biomass basis, can consume almost twenty-five times as many mussels per day than sea stars, which together with the results of our field experiment, suggest that large predatory crabs could play an important role in maintaining ecosystem function through their predation on mussels on rocky shores where P. ochraceus are rare, absent, or have been depleted by SSWD. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5570281 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-55702812017-09-09 Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore Hull, Wesley W. Bourdeau, Paul E. PLoS One Research Article Predation can strongly influence community structure and ecosystem function, so the loss of key predators can have dramatic ecological consequences, unless other predatory species in the system are capable of playing similar ecological roles. In light of the recent outbreak of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) and subsequent depletion of west coast sea star populations, including those of the keystone predator Pisaster ochraceus, we examined whether large mobile crabs could play a role as predators on mussels (Mytilus californianus) on a rocky shore in Northern California. Using a combination of sea star removal and predator exclusion cages we found that mussel mortality was 43–294 times greater in uncaged treatments versus caged treatments. Mortality on uncaged mussels at low tidal elevations was due to predation by large mobile crabs (Cancer productus and Romaleon antennarium); confirmed by the presence of mussel shell fragments and documented attacks on wax snail replicas. Laboratory feeding assays indicated that crabs, on a per unit biomass basis, can consume almost twenty-five times as many mussels per day than sea stars, which together with the results of our field experiment, suggest that large predatory crabs could play an important role in maintaining ecosystem function through their predation on mussels on rocky shores where P. ochraceus are rare, absent, or have been depleted by SSWD. Public Library of Science 2017-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5570281/ /pubmed/28837597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183064 Text en © 2017 Hull, Bourdeau 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 Hull, Wesley W. Bourdeau, Paul E. Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title | Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title_full | Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title_fullStr | Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title_full_unstemmed | Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title_short | Can crabs kill like a keystone predator? A field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast Pacific rocky shore |
title_sort | can crabs kill like a keystone predator? a field-test of the effects of crab predation on mussel mortality on a northeast pacific rocky shore |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5570281/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28837597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183064 |
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