A crab swarm at an ecological hotspot : patchiness and population density from AUV observations at a coastal, tropical seamount

View/ Open
Date
2016-04-12Author
Pineda, Jesus
Concept link
Cho, Walter W.
Concept link
Starczak, Victoria R.
Concept link
Govindarajan, Annette F.
Concept link
Guzman, Hector M.
Concept link
Girdhar, Yogesh
Concept link
Holleman, Rusty C.
Concept link
Churchill, James H.
Concept link
Singh, Hanumant
Concept link
Ralston, David K.
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8028As published
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1770DOI
10.7717/peerj.1770Keyword
Swarms; Ecological hotspot; Patchiness; Panama; Eastern Pacific; Seamount; Pleuroncodes planipes; Hypoxic environment; Anomuran crabsAbstract
A research cruise to Hannibal Bank, a seamount and an ecological hotspot in the coastal eastern tropical Pacific Ocean off Panama, explored the zonation, biodiversity, and the ecological processes that contribute to the seamount’s elevated biomass. Here we describe the spatial structure of a benthic anomuran red crab population, using submarine video and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) photographs. High density aggregations and a swarm of red crabs were associated with a dense turbid layer 4–10 m above the bottom. The high density aggregations were constrained to 355–385 m water depth over the Northwest flank of the seamount, although the crabs also occurred at lower densities in shallower waters (∼280 m) and in another location of the seamount. The crab aggregations occurred in hypoxic water, with oxygen levels of 0.04 ml/l. Barcoding of Hannibal red crabs, and pelagic red crabs sampled in a mass stranding event in 2015 at a beach in San Diego, California, USA, revealed that the Panamanian and the Californian crabs are likely the same species, Pleuroncodes planipes, and these findings represent an extension of the southern endrange of this species. Measurements along a 1.6 km transect revealed three high density aggregations, with the highest density up to 78 crabs/m2, and that the crabs were patchily distributed. Crab density peaked in the middle of the patch, a density structure similar to that of swarming insects.
Description
© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PeerJ 4 (2016): e1770, doi:10.7717/peerj.1770.
Suggested Citation
PeerJ 4 (2016): e1770The following license files are associated with this item:
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Identification of erosional terraces on seamounts : implications for interisland connectivity and subsidence in the Galápagos Archipelago
Schwartz, Darin M.; Soule, Samuel A.; Wanless, V. Dorsey; Jones, Meghan R. (Frontiers Media, 2018-07-03)Shallow seamounts at ocean island hotspots and in other settings may record emergence histories in the form of submarine erosional terraces. Exposure histories are valuable for constraining paleo-elevations and sea levels ... -
Hydrothermal activity and seismicity at teahitia seamount: Reactivation of the society islands hotspot?
German, Christopher R.; Resing, Joseph A.; Xu, Guangyu; Yeo, Isobel A.; Walker, Sharon L.; Devey, Colin W.; Moffett, James W.; Cutter, Gregory A.; Hyvernaud, Olivier; Reymond, Dominique (Frontiers Media, 2020-02-21)Along mid-ocean ridges, submarine venting has been found at all spreading rates and in every ocean basin. By contrast, intraplate hydrothermal activity has only been reported from five locations, worldwide. Here we extend ... -
Ecological functions of uncultured microorganisms in the cobalt-rich ferromanganese crust of a seamount in the central Pacific are elucidated by fosmid sequencing
Huo, Yingyi; Cheng, Hong; Post, Anton F.; Wang, Chunsheng; Jiang, Xiawei; Pan, Jie; Wu, Min; Xu, Xuewei (2014-07)Cobalt-rich ferromanganese is an important seafloor mineral and is abundantly present in the seamount crusts. Such crusts form potential hotspots for biogeochemical activity and microbial diversity, yet our understanding ...