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Regional differences in foraging behaviour of invasive green crab (Carcinus maenas) populations in Atlantic Canada
Authors:Melanie A. Rossong  Pedro A. Quijón  Paul V. R. Snelgrove  Timothy J. Barrett  Cynthia H. McKenzie  Andrea Locke
Affiliation:(1) Department of Biology and Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada;(2) Department of Biology, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4P3, Canada;(3) Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, NB, E2L 4L5, Canada;(4) Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. John’s, NL, A1C 5X1, Canada;(5) Gulf Fisheries Centre, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, P.O. Box 5030, Moncton, NB, E1C 9B6, Canada
Abstract:Invasive green crab populations initially established in Canada within the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick in the 1950s and were present in all five Atlantic provinces by 2007. Genetic evidence suggests that the Atlantic Canadian populations originated from two separate introductions with differences in time of establishment among regions and possible population-level behavioural differences. In this study, we examine intraspecific foraging behaviour among crabs from different populations, and interspecific foraging behaviour between genetically similar crabs and juvenile lobsters. Both sets of foraging experiments involved competition for a limited food source over a 1-h period. In intraspecific match-ups, recent invaders from Newfoundland (NL) were significantly superior foragers than long-established invaders from Nova Scotia (NS) and New Brunswick (NB) populations; however, we found no differences between NL and Prince Edward Island (PE) invaders. Crabs from PE were better competitors than those from NS and NB, but these differences were not significant. Interspecific competition experiments indicated that the feeding behaviour of recent invaders (NL) and genetically similar, but long-established invaders (NS), differed in the presence of juvenile lobsters. Our study documents striking behavioural differences among populations of green crab from a small geographic region, which may reflect a combination of both genetic differences and time since establishment. These differences may result in varying impacts on newly invaded habitats.
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