Predicting diet in brachyuran crabs using external morphology.

Morphological traits have often been used to predict diet and trophic position of species across many animal groups. Variation in gut size of closely related animals is known to be a good predictor of dietary habits. Species that are more herbivorous or that persist on low-quality diets often have larger stomachs than their carnivorous counterparts.

Latitudinal and temporal variation in injury and its impacts in the invasive Asian shore crab Hemigrapsus sanguineus.

Nonlethal injury is a pervasive stress on individual animals that can affect large portions of a population at any given time. Yet most studies examine snapshots of injury at a single place and time, making the implicit assumption that the impacts of nonlethal injury are constant. We sampled Asian shore crabs Hemigrapsus sanguineus throughout their invasive North American range and from the spring through fall of 2020.

Metabolic rates of the Asian shore crab in air as a function of body size, location, and injury.

Rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine may influence the success or invasiveness of the Asian shore crab, . To better predict the effects of climate change on this invasive species, it is necessary to measure its energy dynamics under a range of conditions. However, previous research has only focused on the metabolism of this intertidal species in water.