Body condition and energy content of the shore crabCarcinus maenasL. in a temperate coastal system: the cost of barnacle epibiosis

Abstract

The impact of barnacle epibionts on the condition of the shore crab Carcinus maenas was studied for the western Wadden Sea population. Approximately 39% of the crabs were fouled with the barnacle Balanus crenatus. Although the morphological Fulton's K condition decreased by 5.8% in fouled crabs, Linear Mixed-Effects Models (LMM) showed that only the energetic condition of the crabs was significantly affected by fouling. The energy density of fouled crabs was consistently poorer (4.1% in AFDW; 8.7% in dry weight) than that of non-fouled crabs, especially in females and green forms in dry weight (12.8 and 11.4% reduction, respectively). Cumulative infection with Sacculina carcini, detected in 4.5% of the fouled crabs, additionally reduced by 14.3% the energy density in dry weight and almost to half of the total energy of the fouled crabs. Impacts of energy density reduction on crabs' growth and reproduction are discussed.

Winter Epibiotic Community of the Red King Crab Paralithodes camtschaticus in Sayda Bay (Barents Sea)

“…The latter, which seldom have a free-living life stage and are challenging to collect using conventional methods, can benefit greatly from epibiosis research [ 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, analyzing fouling communities can yield valuable insights into the impact of epibionts on host populations [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Symbiotic and epibiotic interactions of the red king crab in its new habitat were studied at deep sites [ 15 , 16 , 17 ] and shallow-water locations [ 9 , 10 , 18 , 19 ].…”