ABSTRACT
Stable isotope analyses (delta(15)N) were used to examine invertebrate tissue enrichment in two North Carolina estuaries with differing amounts of nutrient loading. Bivalves collected from a nutrient sensitive estuary yielded a significant difference in mean nitrogen isotopic composition of tissue (10.4 per thousand+/-0.82; N=66) compared to bivalves collected from a less nutrient sensitive estuary (6.4 per thousand+/-0.63; N=45). Similarly, blue crabs from nutrient sensitive sites had a nitrogen isotopic composition of 11.4 per thousand (+/-1.3, N=77), which was significantly different (P<0.001) than the tissue of less nutrient sensitive blue crabs (9.6 per thousand+/-0.6; N=77). The results showed that an inverse relationship exists between invertebrate tissue enrichment and indicators of water quality across estuarine sites. This study suggests that a relationship may exist between nutrient sources and subsequent energy transfer to estuarine consumers in two North Carolina estuaries.
Subject(s)
Bivalvia/metabolism , Brachyura/metabolism , Nitrogen Isotopes/analysis , Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis , Animals , Body Size , Corbicula/metabolism , Environmental Monitoring/methods , Fishes/metabolism , Linear Models , Male , North Carolina , Rivers , Tissue DistributionABSTRACT
The rock crab, Cancer irroratus Say, uses chemically mediated learning in the search for food. Rock crabs are opportunistic benthic predators and scavengers. Observations indicate that although they eat a variety of items, they are more sensitive to, and prefer, odors of food items that they have been eating. We found that C. irroratus is more responsive to a familiar food source than to an unfamiliar one and can distinguish between the odors of two different prey after being fed one species for an extended time. Initial preferences for two mytilid bivalves, Mytilus edulis and Geukensia demissa, were determined in a Y-maze. Crabs were then fed only one of the mussel species for 28 days and retested, using sequential and simultaneous presentations, for their responses to familiar and unfamiliar prey odors. Crabs increased their responses to familiar prey odors, but not to unfamiliar odors. In foraging tests, crabs ate M. edulis more often regardless of the species to which they had been familiarized.
ABSTRACT
Rock crabs,Cancer irroratus, respond to food odors in low concentration as measured by changes in antennular flicking rate. The responses of rock crabs to prey odor were tested in the presence and absence of visual cues to determine the role of chemical cues in prey recognition. Crabs were attracted to the source of mussel odor introduced into one arm of a Y maze. Natural and artificial prey shells and resin boxes were presented to crabs with and without the presence of mussel extract. The crabs were able to see, handle, and manipulate these objects. Crabs opened and consumed contents that emitted chemosensory cues and ignored identical objects that did not. Rock crabs were attracted to food odors and are capable of utilizing chemical cues to detect, locate, and identify food items.
