Patterns of habitat partitioning for the portunid crab Ovalipes trimaculatus in costal Patagonian waters

DE LA BARRA, PAULA; NARVARTE, MAITE; IRIBARNE, OSCAR; IRIBARNE, OSCAR; BOTTO, FLORENCIA; BOTTO, FLORENCIA; DE LA BARRA, PAULA; NARVARTE, MAITE

ESTUARINE COASTAL AND SHELF SCIENCE

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2018 vol. 213 p. 52 - 57

0272-7714

Animals frequently face trade-offs between theirrequirements for maximizing growth and minimizing mortality risk. The partitionof habitat use in foraging arenas and refuges as an answer to this trade-offhas been evaluated in intertidal crabs but is poorly known in subtidal crabs.The subtidal crab Ovalipestrimaculatus lives and is captured by artisanal fishermen on sandybottoms of the San Matias Gulf (Lat 41 °S; Argentina). Whereas these bottomsare poor in potential prey, the nearby rocky outcrops are much richer withrelatively high abundance of potential prey for the species. Hence, weinvestigated if crabs in this area are using rocky bottoms as a foraging arena.Stomach content and stable isotopes analysis show that none of the evaluatedprey (small teleosts, echinoderms, mollusks and crustaceans) contributed to morethan 10% of O. trimaculatus diet, however preyfrom hard bottoms jointly contributed to 50-80% of the diet. Thus, O. trimaculatus is a generalistcarnivore that, despite inhabiting mainly open sandy bottoms, uses rockyoutcrops habitats as a foraging arena, probably due to their higher preyavailability