We made several trips to Nahant, MA to conduct independent studies over the course of the semester.  At first I was interested in conducting a project examining the impacts of Hemigrapsus sanguineus on the tidepool communities of the rocky intertidal.  This would have proved to be very difficult since any community study takes a lot of time and is tough to control all the variables.  Therefore, I decided to do a study on juvenile crabs to determine where they are living and where they move to as they grow up.  Since this is a new invasive species to the New England area there is little known about this crab so my hope is that more information about where this crab spends its juvenile life may shed some light on why it has thrived in this new environment.

Abstract: Hemigrapsus sanguineus (Asian Shore Crab) invaded North America in 1988 and has since became a dominant crab species from Maine to the Carolinas.  Due to its potential impacts on the food webs and community structure of the New England intertidal it is important to know all the information possible on the species to minimize potential disruptions of native species.  This study investigates the juvenile population of H. sanguineus by sampling the population along a typical rocky intertidal coastline at Nahant, MA, USA.  Thirty-two crabs were collected and carapace width was measured to compare to the zone the individuals were found.  No significant size distribution was found according to zonation, however more individuals were found in the middle zone than in the low zone and none were found in the high intertidal zone.  More studies will need to be done to increase the sample size and to try to further discover why this species does so well in the New England intertidal area.