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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Assessing Intertidal Populations of the Invasive European Green Crab
Published on: September 16, 2020
Nitrogen dynamics in the mangrove sediments affected by crabs in the intertidal regions
Hao Cheng1,2,3, Zhao-Yu Jiang1,3, Xiao-Xia Ma1,4
1State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China.
Abstract:
Crab is an important benthonic animal in mangrove ecosystem, however, the potential function of crabs on nitrogen (N) transformation in mangrove ecosystems is still poorly understood. The present study aimed to explore the potential effect of crab burrows on nitrification/denitrification within the sediments. The results showed that the presence of crab burrows could directly promote soil nitrification, the regions within more crab burrows appeared to possess higher nitrification. Higher AOA and AOB gene copies were also observed in the sediments surrounding crab burrows than those in the sediments without crab burrow. On the contrary, lower nirS copies, a denitrification related gene, were detected in the sediments surrounding crab burrows. In summary, the present study proposed new evidences of nitrification enhancement deriving by crabs, the presence of crabs might be significant in alleviating nitrification inhibition and benefits the growth of mangroves under tidal flooding.
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