The intertidal mudflats of Barr Al Hikman, Sultanate of Oman, as feeding, reproduction and nursery grounds for brachyura
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PRIMARY RESEARCH PAPER
The intertidal mudflats of Barr Al Hikman, Sultanate of Oman, as feeding, reproduction and nursery grounds for brachyuran crabs Roeland A. Bom . Jan A. van Gils . Karen Molenaar . Andy Y. Kwarteng . Reginald Victor . Eelke O. Folmer
Received: 4 May 2020 / Revised: 16 September 2020 / Accepted: 18 September 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Brachyuran crabs are an important ecological and economical, yet often unstudied aspect of intertidal mudflats of the Arabian Peninsula. Here we provide baseline density estimates of crabs at the relatively pristine intertidal mudflats of Barr Al Hikman (Sultanate of Oman) and provide information on their life cycle and habitat preference. Across the winters of 2012–2015 crabs were sampled on a grid covering the entire intertidal depth gradient. 29 species were found and average densities varied Handling editor: Iacopo Bertocci
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04418-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. R. A. Bom (&) K. Molenaar Department of Coastal Systems, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] R. A. Bom A. Y. Kwarteng Remote Sensing and GIS Center, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 33, PC 123 Al Khod, Oman
between 12 and 54 crabs/m2. Deposit-feeding and herbivorous crabs were the most abundant species across all winters. Size frequency data and the presence of ovigerous females show that most crabs species reproduce in the intertidal area. P. segnis, the most important crab for local fisheries, was found to use the intertidal area as a nursery ground. We analysed the relationships between the two most abundant crab species, Macrophthalmus sulcatus and Thalamita poissonii and the environmental variables: seagrass density, tidal elevation, median grain size and sediment depth using Random Forest models. The predictive capacity of the models and the relative importance of the environmental predictors varied between years, but crab densities in general were
R. Victor Department of Biology, College of Science, P.O. Box 36, PC 123 Al Khod, Oman E. O. Folmer Ecospace, Ecological Research and Environmental Informatics, Graspieper 1, 8532 AT Lemmer, The Netherlands
J. A. van Gils Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands
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Hydrobiologia
positively associated with seagrass density, presumably because seagrass offers feeding habitat. Keywords Barr Al Hikman Brachyuran crabs Nursery ground Portunus segnis Seagrass Sultanate of Oman
Introduction Intertidal mudflats are highly productive ecosystems with many ecological and socio-economical values (Levin et al., 2001). For instance, these soft-sedimented areas provide essential foraging, nursery and reprod
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