The Impact of Blue Crab Dietary Behavior and Demographic Traits on the Consumption of an Invasive Species
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Date
2017-11-15
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Abstract
The basis of the research this summer was to observe the different behavioral tendencies between the native and non-native blue crabs, as well as predator mud crabs, when they are presented a choice of native prey and the feeding rates of the non-native prey after being exposed to similar and dissimilar prey in a training period. For my individual project (simultaneous prey choice assay), the results showed a significant difference between the consumption of ribbed mussels and mud crabs compared to the consumption of oysters and the green porcelain crab. It can be concluded that the Georgia blue crabs preferred the consumption of ribbed mussels (as they had the highest consumption rate between both male and female predators), followed by the consumption of the mud crabs. The invasive green porcelain crab had the lowest consumption rate out of all the prey items, rejecting the idea that they would be as readily consumed as the native prey items were. As for the results on the individual learning trials for both the Georgia and North Carolina blue crabs, and the Georgia and North Carolina mud crabs, we are still working on the data analysis.
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STEP Category: Undergraduate Research
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STEP, Undergraduate Research