Experiment on the functional response of non-indigenous crab Hemigrapsus takanoi across seasons and temperatures in the Baltic Sea
2024
Theurich, Nora | Cuthbert, Ross N | Briski, Elizabeta
We examined the functional response of the Japanese brush-clawed shore crab ( Hemigrapsus takanoi ) towards blue mussels ( Mytilus sp.) across four seasons for an ambient and +6 °C future warming scenario in the Baltic Sea. The experiment was carried out as a laboratory experiment at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Crabs were sampled in the innermost part of the Kiel Fjord, Germany (54°19′44.8″ N, 10°08′55.5″ E) between Summer 2021 and Spring 2023 during the respective season. The experimental design used a fully factorial approach, examining the functional response across two temperatures, two sexes, and eight prey densities (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32, 64) across four seasons. Each crab was subjected to a pre-experiment 48-hour starvation period and then exposed to a fixed number of mussels for a 72-hour feeding trial. The number of mussels consumed was recorded, providing data on the predatory impact of H. takanoi under varying temperature scenarios and across seasons.
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