Journal article
Effects of burrowing crabs on coastal sediments and their functions: A systematic meta‐analysis
Ecosphere (Washington, D.C), v 15(7), e4927
Jul 2024
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Abstract Burrowing ecosystem engineers, such as termites, crabs, marmots, and foxes, can profoundly affect the biological structure and ecosystem functions of their environments. However, the relative importance of the effects of burrowing engineers on sediments are challenging to predict and are expected to be influenced by engineer density, engineer functional traits (e.g., burrow morphology), and environmental conditions (e.g., geomorphology, vegetation presence). To develop robust hypotheses predicting the impacts of burrowing ecosystem engineers, we conducted a systematic meta‐analysis evaluating the effects of burrowing crabs on sediment properties, nutrient stocks, and ecosystem functions in soft‐sediment coastal habitats (e.g., salt marshes, mangrove forests, tidal flats). Additionally, we tested the impacts of crab burrow density, burrowing crab superfamily (a proxy for crab burrow morphology and diet), and biotic conditions (i.e., vegetation) on the effects of burrowing crab engineers on coastal sediments. Burrowing crabs rework and oxygenate sediments and accelerate rates of nutrient cycling (i.e., nitrification and CO 2 flux). However, the magnitude and direction of burrowing crab effects depend on burrowing crab superfamily, the presence of vegetation, and their interaction. Crab burrow density did not consistently predict burrowing engineer effects on sediments. Future efforts need to focus on implementing rigorous manipulative experiments to assess crab ecosystem engineering effects, since methodological variation has hindered efforts to generalize their effects. Our findings suggest that crab engineering effects are predictable across environmental contexts, and understanding the context dependency of crab engineering effects may promote the management and restoration of the critical ecosystem services that are mediated by crab engineers.
Metrics
6 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Effects of burrowing crabs on coastal sediments and their functions: A systematic meta‐analysis
- Creators
- Shelby A. Rinehart - Drexel UniversityJacob M. Dybiec - University of AlabamaJanet B. Walker - Southern California Coastal Water Research ProjectLance Simpson - University of AlabamaJulia A. Cherry - University of Alabama
- Publication Details
- Ecosphere (Washington, D.C), v 15(7), e4927
- Publisher
- Ecological Society of America
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001271088400001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85198833786
- Other Identifier
- 991021894515004721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Ecology