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Estimating the assimilation of mangrove detritus by fiddler crabs in Laguna Joyuda, Puerto Rico, using dual stable isotopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1998

Robert France
Robert France
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Abstract

Dual stable isotope analyses (δ13C and δ15N) of fiddler crabs from a forest-fringed, land-locked lagoon in Puerto Rico indicated the differential assimilation of material from ingested sediments. Fiddler crabs preferentially selected for nitrogen-fixing benthic microalgae (cyanobacteria) over vascular plant detritus. These results question the assumption that mangrove detritus is always the principal source of energy to estuarine consumers. Previous research from this lagoon as well as from Amazonia suggests that the magnitude of land-water ecotonal coupling may be low for these particular tropical systems where benthic algal productivity is presumably high.

Keywords

benthic microalgaedifferential assimilationfiddler crabsmangrovesstable carbon and nitrogen isotopes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , July 1998 , pp. 413 - 425
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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