Crustacea (Crab)

Chakraborty, S K and Chakravarty, Gurudas and Giri, Sunirmal and Dam Roy, S and George, J P (2005) Crustacea (Crab). CMFRI Special Publication Mangrove ecosystems: A manual for the assessment of biodiversity, 83. pp. 150-157.

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    Abstract

    Brachyuran crabs, a bioenergetically significant group constitute one of the most dominant macrobenthic faunal components in all the mangrove ecosystems of the world. Several species of commercially important crabs like - Scylla serrata occur in mangroves. Brachyuran crabs play significant role to maintain the steady state condition of mangrove ecosystems several ways. The feedig activities of detritivore crabs such as - Uca, Macrophthalmus, Dotilla, Sesarma etc. help in the degradation of organic matter, especially mangrove litters and decaying woods. They also influence the functioning of mangrove ecosystems as burrowers since their repeated burrowing and reburrowing activities enhance the soil aeration, mixing of different soil profiles, nutrient cycling, maintaining of fluidity etc. (Montague, 1980, 1982 ; Bertness, 1985). Furthermore, crabs create a wide variety of bioturbation structures which are very significant for trapping sediments and mangrove seeds (Choudhury and Choudhury, 1994). In India several taxonomic works on estuarine and mangrove brachyuran crabs have been done (Chakraborty et al.,1986; Mandal and Nandi, 1989; Chakraborty and Choudhury, 1992; Dev Roy and Das, 2000 etc.). A total of 55 species of brachyuran crabs under 31 genera have been reported earlier from the mangrove habitats of India (Dev Roy and Das, 2000). Eighteen species of brachyuran crabs under 9 genera and 4 families were identified from Sundarbans Mangrove Ecosystems (Chakraborty and Choudhury, 1992).

    Item Type: Article
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Crustacea; Crab; Mangrove
    Subjects: Marine Ecosystems > Mangroves
    Crustacean Fisheries > Crabs
    Divisions: CMFRI-Kochi > Fishery Environment Management Division
    Subject Area > CMFRI > CMFRI-Kochi > Fishery Environment Management Division
    CMFRI-Kochi > Fishery Environment Management Division
    Subject Area > CMFRI-Kochi > Fishery Environment Management Division
    Depositing User: Arun Surendran
    Date Deposited: 04 Oct 2010 07:19
    Last Modified: 09 Sep 2015 15:25
    URI: http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/id/eprint/4023

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