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Feeding ecology of Parasesarma plicatum and its relation to carbon structuring in mangrove ecosystem

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Abstract

The study focused on litter processing efficiency of the sesarmid crab, Parasesarma plicatum under experimental conditions and its possible role in carbon structuring in the mangrove habitats. The feeding experiment of crab with different stages of leaves of diverse mangrove species revealed that senescent brown leaves were preferred the most, due to their lesser tannin content. The leaf consumption differed significantly with leaf state as well as mangrove species and highest was for Avicennia officinalis brown leaves. The ingestion-egestion assay of P. plicatum revealed that it assimilated an average of 65.75 ± 10.30% of mangrove litter. The experimental study also revealed that rather than already reported C/N ratio, the inhibiting factors such as tannin and lignin like substances control the palatability of leaves by the crab species. The analysis of carbon and nitrogen variants in the experimental water indicated that handling of leaves by the crab helps in leaching of nutrients to the substratum. Therefore, the findings of litter processing efficiency of this sesarmid crab from the present study highlights its significance in structuring the carbon in natural mangrove habitat.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is thankful to DST-INSPIRE, Govt. of India with grant number (IF110502) which financially supported the present research work. The authors are thankful to Dr. Ng. K. Peter, National University of Singapore for his support in crab identification.

Funding

The Research was carried out with the funding from DST-INSPIRE, Govt. of India with grant number (IF110502).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, Kerala, 682016, India

    Varghese Rani, Chandraseskharan Sreelakshmi, Sivasankaran Bijoy Nandan & Chakkalakal Mani Preethy

  2. Research Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, St. Albert’s College, Ernakulam, India

    Kuzhikandathil Sunny Santu

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  1. Varghese Rani
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  2. Chandraseskharan Sreelakshmi
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Contributions

VR: contributed to the conception and design of the work, acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data and manuscript drafting. BN: contributed in conception and edited the manuscript. SC: helped in experimental part and field collection of crabs and leaves. KSS: helped in molecular analysis of crabs and also assisted in experimental analysis. CMPp: helped in editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Varghese Rani.

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Rani, V., Sreelakshmi, C., Nandan, S.B. et al. Feeding ecology of Parasesarma plicatum and its relation to carbon structuring in mangrove ecosystem. Hydrobiologia 850, 911–927 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05133-y

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