Effects of Land Crabs on Leaf Litter Distributions and Accumulations in a Mainland Tropical Rain Forest1

Autor: Peter M. Sherman
Rok vydání: 2003
Předmět:
Zdroj: Biotropica. 35:365-374
ISSN: 1744-7429
0006-3606
DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2003.tb00590.x
Popis: The effect of the fossorial land crab Gecarcinus quadratus (Gecarcinidae) on patterns of accumulation and distribution of leaf litter was studied for two years in the coastal primary forests of Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park. Within this mainland forest, G. quadratus achieve densities up to 6 crabs/m2 in populations extending along the Park's Pacific coastline and inland for ca 600 m. Crabs selectively forage for fallen leaf litter and relocate what they collect to burrow chambers that extend from 15 to 150 cm deep (N = 44), averaging (±SE) 48.9 ± 3.0 cm. Preference trials suggested that leaf choice by crabs may be species-specific. Excavated crab burrows revealed maximum leaf collections of 11.75 g dry mass—2.5 times more leaf litter than collected by square-meter leaf fall traps over several seven-day sampling periods. Additionally, experimental crab exclosures (25 m2) were established using a repeated measures randomized block design to test for changes in leaf litter as a function of re...
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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