Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T10:30:46.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of land-use/land-cover changes on land crab, Cardisoma guanhumi, abundance in Puerto Rico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Yogani Govender ,
Alberto M. Sabat  and
Elvira Cuevas
Yogani Govender*
Affiliation:
CATEC-Centre for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 23360, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360 Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 23360, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360
Alberto M. Sabat
Affiliation:
CATEC-Centre for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 23360, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360
Elvira Cuevas
Affiliation:
CATEC-Centre for Applied Tropical Ecology and Conservation, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 23360, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360 Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, P. O. Box 23360, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00931-3360
*
1Corresponding author. Email: yoganig@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The land crab Cardisoma guanhumi populations have been on the decline in Puerto Rico for the last three decades. While some studies suggest overexploitation and pesticides as causing the observed population declines, the effect of land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes have not been investigated. In this study we compared the abundance and size of Cardisoma guanhumi in five different LULC types (mangroves, grasslands, forest, urban and industrial), and investigated the relationship between differences in physical microhabitat conditions among the LULC types with crab abundance and size. Although no significant differences in size were found among the different LULC types, crabs were significantly less abundant in grassland sites. Surface soil temperature, depth to groundwater and air temperature were found to vary significantly among the LULC types. Of these, only surface soil temperatures had a significant negative relationship with crab abundance. It appears that high variation in soil temperature and a high groundwater table observed in the grasslands is most detrimental to crabs. Interestingly, during the time when land crab populations declined there was corresponding change of LULC from agriculture to grasslands. Cardisoma guanhumi is resilient to changes in LULC, however, changes that alter their access to groundwater and escape from high soil temperature reduce their habitat.

Keywords

depth to groundwaterestuariesgrasslandshabitat changessoil temperature
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , July 2008 , pp. 417 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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

LITERATURE CITED

ARDEN, H. 1994. Effects of habitat fragmentation on birds and mammals in landscapes with different proportions of suitable habitat: a review. Oikos 71:355–366.Google Scholar
ASHTON, E. C., MACINTOSH, D. J. & HOGARTH, P. J. 2003. A baseline study of the diversity and community ecology of crab and molluscan macrofauna in the sematan mangrove forest, Sarawak, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19:127–142.Google Scholar
ATKINSON, R. J. A. & TAYLOR, A. C. 1988. Physiological ecology of burrowing decapods. Zoological Symposium, No. 59. The Zoological Society of London.Google Scholar
BLISS, D. E. 1968. Transition from water to land in decapod crustaceans. American Zoologist 8:355–392.Google Scholar
BLISS, D. E. & MANTEL, L. H. 1968 Adaptations of crustaceans to land: a summary and analysis of new findings. American Zoologist 8:675–685.Google Scholar
BURGGREN, W. & MCMAHON, B. R (eds.) 1988. Biology of land crabs. Cambridge University Press, New York. 479 pp.Google Scholar
BURKE, L., KURA, Y., KASEM, K., REVENGA, C., SPALDING, M. & MCALLISTER, D. 2001. Coastal ecosystems. World Resources Institute, Washington DC. 93 pp.Google Scholar
FELICIANO, C. 1962. Notes on the biology and the economic importance of the land crab Cardisoma guanhumi (Latreille) of Puerto Rico. Department of Agriculture. A special contribution, Institute of Marine Biology, University of Puerto Rico Mayagúez Campus.Google Scholar
GARCIA, M. & BONNELLY DE CALVENTI, I. 1983. El cangrejo de manglar Ucides cordatus en la Republica Dominicana. Editorial Gaviota (Gaviota Press) Santo Domingo.Google Scholar
GILLIKIN, D. P., DE WACHTER, B. & TACK, J. F. 2001. Physiological response to two ecologically important Kenyan mangrove crabs exposed to altered salinity regimes. Journal of Experimental and Marine Biology and Ecology 301:93–109.Google Scholar
GOVENDER, Y. 2007. Understanding the land crab fishery in Puerto Rico: a multidisciplinary approach. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Puerto Rico (Ecology). Rio Piedras Campus. Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
GOVENDER, Y. & RODRIGUEZ-FOURQUET, C. 2008. Techniques for rapid assessment of population density and body size of the land crab Cardisoma guanhumi (Lattreille, 1825) in Puerto Rico. Tropical Estuaries 1:9–15.Google Scholar
GRAU, H. R., AIDE, M. T., ZIMMERMAN, J. K, THOMLINSON, J. R., HELMER, E. & ZOU, X. 2003. The ecological consequences of socio-economic and land-use changes in post-agriculture Puerto Rico. Bioscience 53:1159–1168.Google Scholar
HARBOUR, J. M. 1994. A practical method for estimating the impact of land-use change on surface runoff, groundwater recharge and wetland hydrology. Journal of the American Planning Association 60:100–105.Google Scholar
HERREID, C. F. & GIFFORD, C. A. 1963.The burrowing habitat of the land crab C. guanhumi. Ecology 44:773–775CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MORRISEY, D. J., SKILLETER, G. A., ELLIS, J. I., BURNS, B. R., KEMP, C. E. & BURT, K. 2003. Differences in benthic fauna and sediment among mangrove (Avicennia marina var. australasica) stands in different ages in New Zealand. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 56:581–592.Google Scholar
POLCHER, J. & LAVAL, K. 1994. The impact of African and Amazonian deforestation on tropical climate. Journal of Hydrology 155:389–405.Google Scholar
PRINGLE, C. M., FREEMAN, M. C. & FREEMAN, B. J. 2000. Regional effects of hydrological alterations on riverine macrobiota in the New World: tropical-temperate comparisons. Bioscience 50:807–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RODRÍGUEZ, J. M. 2006. Evaluation of hydrologic conditions and nitrate concentrations in the Rio Nigua de Salinas alluvial fan aquifer, Salinas, Puerto Rico, 2002–3. US Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006–5062, 38 pp.Google Scholar
RODRÍGUEZ-FOURQUET, C. 2004. Abundance and demography of Caridosma guanhumi in Puerto Rico. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Puerto Rico (Ecology). Rio Piedras Campus. Puerto Rico.Google Scholar
ROWELL, D. L. 1994. Soil science: methods and applications. Longman Group, Harlow. 350 pp.Google Scholar
SOKAL, R. R. & ROHLF, F. J. 1981. Biometry. W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco. 859 pp.Google Scholar
THOMLINSON, J. R., SERRANO, M. I., DEL MAR LOPEZ, T., AIDE, M. T. & ZIMMERMAN, K. J. 1996. Land-use dynamics in post-agricultural Puerto Rican landscape (1936–1988). Biotropica 28:525–535.Google Scholar
WOLCOTT, T. G. 1988. Ecology. Pp. 55–95 in Burggren, W. W. & McMahon, B. R. (eds.). Biology of the land crabs. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar