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Web End = Oecologia (2015) 178:9991015
DOI 10.1007/s00442-015-3271-0
PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY - ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Received: 4 June 2014 / Accepted: 11 February 2015 / Published online: 19 March 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
other high-marsh detrital food sources, and the periwinkle
Littoraria was the preferred prey of male (but not female) crabs from the forest habitats; both male and female crabs from marsh habitat preferred the ddler crab Uca over three other prey items. In the eld, the major food sources were clearly vegetal, but males have a higher trophic position than females. In contrast to food preference, isotope data excluded Uca and Littoraria as major food sources, except for males from the forest, and suggested that Armases consumes a mix of C4 and C3 plants along with animal prey. Digestive enzyme activities differed signicantly between sexes and habitats and were higher in females and in marsh crabs. The bacterial hindgut community differed signicantly between sexes, but habitat effects were greater than sex effects. By combining multiple measures of feeding ecology, we demonstrate that Armases exhibits sex-specic habitat choice and food preference. By using both coastal forest and saltmarsh habitats, but feeding predominantly in the latter, they possibly act as a key biotic vector of spatial subsidies across habitat borders. The degree of contributing to uxes of matter, nutrients and energy, however, depends on their sex, indicating that changes in population structure would likely have profound effects on ecosystem connectivity and functioning.
Keywords Saltmarsh Coastal forest Land crab
Sexual dimorphism Spatial subsidy Habitat connectivity Motile link organism
Introduction
Historically, ecologists considered food webs as static representations of communities, and habitats as closed systems comprising these communities. This approach was useful
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Web End = Sex and habitatspecic movement of an omnivorous semiterrestrial crab controls habitat connectivity and subsidies: a multiparameter approach
Lena Hbner Steven C. Pennings Martin Zimmer
Abstract Distinct habitats are often linked through uxes of matter and migration of organisms. In particular, inter-tidal ecotones are prone to being inuenced from both the marine and the terrestrial realms, but whether or not small-scale migration for feeding,...