Mangrove crab

Mangrove crab

Mangrove crabs are crabs that live among mangroves, and may belong to many different species and even families. They have been shown to be ecologically significant in many ways. They keep much of the energy within the forest by burying and consuming leaf litter. Along with burrowing in the ground, these crustaceans can climb trees to protect themselves. The hermit crab and the mangrove crab are the only crustaceans that can climb trees as a defense mechanism. Furthermore, their feces may form the basis of a coprophagous food chain contributing to mangrove secondary production.

Mangrove crab larvae are the major source of food for juvenile fish inhabiting the adjacent waterways, indicating that crabs also help nearshore fisheries. The adult crabs are food for threatened species such as the crab plover.

Their burrows alter the topography and sediment grain size of the mangrove, and help aerate the sediment. Removing crabs from an area causes significant increases in sulfides and ammonium concentrations, which in turn affects the productivity and reproductive output of the vegetation, supporting the hypothesis that mangrove crabs are a keystone species.

See also

• Fiddler crab
• Scylla serrata, an Indo-Pacific mangrove crab
• Perisesarma
• Mangrove ecoregions

External links

• East African mangrove crabs
• Spotted Mangrove Crab (Caribbean and Florida)
• Mangrove Crab Aquaculture
• Red Mangrove-tree Crab
• East African mangrove crabs
• Mangrove crabs at Sungei Buloh Nature Park
• Mangrove crab Ucides cordatus (Brazil)
• Complete larval and early juvenile development of the mangrove crab Perisesarma fasciatum (Singapore)
• Laboratory cultured zoeae and megalopa of the mangrove crab Metaplax distincta
• Regulation of pulmonary blood flow and of blood pressure in a mangrove crab (Goniopsis cruentata)
• Haberma nanum, a new genus and new species of mangrove crab from Singaporeja:ノコギリガザミ