Between
October 11-19, 2008 our class had the opportunity to travel to Bermuda to
better understand marine ecosystems and to conduct our own self
designed research projects. During that time I saw some incredible sights
and I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful all of the fish and
corals are. My research focused on an equally interesting
organism called Pachygrapsus transversus.
Please use the links above to navigate through the pages
that cover the research that I did on this shore crab during my week in
Bermuda.
Abstract: Pachygrapsus transversus
is a common crab found in the warmer waters of the Atlantic including
Bermuda. Due to their prevalence, they are a major part of the
community in Bermuda and make residences out of the crevices in
Bermuda's volcanic rock. If Pachygrapsus
inhabits a majority of the crevices this may lead to negative
implications for other organisms in the community. This study
examined the crevices used by the crabs to assess if there is any
relationship between the dimensions of the hole and the presence of an
individual crab. Only hole width was found to have a relationship
with respect to crab presence suggesting that the width of the hole
opening is the most important aspect a crab uses for deciding upon a
place of hiding. However, due to the multitude of open holes, no impact on other community organisms was concluded. |
