Increase in density of genetically diverse invasive Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) populations in the Gulf of Maine.

ABSTRACT: Hemigrapsus sanguineus, the Asian shore crab, has rapidly replaced Carcinus maenas, the green crab, as the most abundant crab on rocky shores in the northwest Atlantic since its introduction to the United States (USA) in 1988. The northern edge of this progressing invasion is the Gulf of Maine, where Asian shore crabs are only abundant in the south. We compared H. sanguineus population densities to those from published 2005 surveys and quantified genetic variation using the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. We found that the range of H. sanguineus had extended northward since 2005, that population density had increased substantially (at least 10-fold at all sites), and that Asian shore crabs had become the dominant intertidal crab species in New Hampshire and

SUBMITTER: Lord JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5597051 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature