Field-based body temperatures reveal behavioral thermoregulation strategies of the Atlantic marsh fiddler crab Minuca pugnax

Brodie, Renae; Hews, Sarah; Allen, Zahkeyah; Baxter, Adrienne; Sheikh, Zahida; Wu, Jenny; Zakoul, Heidi; Rich, Jacquline; Taylor, Kayla

Field-based body temperatures reveal behavioral thermoregulation strategies of the Atlantic marsh fiddler crab Minuca pugnax

dc.contributor.author	Brodie, Renae
dc.contributor.author	Hews, Sarah
dc.contributor.author	Allen, Zahkeyah
dc.contributor.author	Baxter, Adrienne
dc.contributor.author	Sheikh, Zahida
dc.contributor.author	Wu, Jenny
dc.contributor.author	Zakoul, Heidi
dc.contributor.author	Rich, Jacquline
dc.contributor.author	Taylor, Kayla
dc.date.accessioned	2020-07-24T20:30:24Z
dc.date.available	2020-07-24T20:30:24Z
dc.date.issued	2020-07-04
dc.description	Manuscript preprint and associated data files	en_US
dc.description.abstract	Behavioral thermoregulation is an important defense against the negative impacts of climate change for ectotherms. In this study we examined the use of burrows by a common intertidal crab, Minuca pugnax, to control body temperature. To understand how body temperatures respond to changes in the surface temperature and explore how efficiently crabs exploit the cooling potential of burrows to thermoregulate, we measured body, surface, and burrow temperature data during low tide on Sapelo Island, GA in March, May, August, and September of 2019 . We found that an increase in 1°C in the surface temperature led to a 0.70-0.71°C increase in body temperature for females and an increase in 0.75-0.77 °C in body temperature for males. Body temperatures of small females were 0.3°C warmer than large females for the same surface temperature. Female crabs used burrows more efficiently for thermoregulation compared to the males. Specifically, an increase of 1 degree C in the cooling capacity (the difference between the burrow temperature and the surface temperature) led to an increase of 0.42-0.50°C for females and 0.34-0.35 °C for males in the thermoregulation capacity (the difference between body temperature and surface temperature). The body temperature that crabs began to use burrows to thermoregulate was estimated to be around 24 degree C, which is far below the critical body temperatures that could lead to death. Many crabs experience body temperatures of 24 °C early in the reproductive season, several months before the hottest days of the year. Because the use of burrows involves fitness trade-offs, these results suggest that warming temperatures could begin to impact crabs far earlier in the year than expected.	en_US
dc.description.sponsorship	NSF RUI (research at undergraduate institutions) Award Number: 1755335 IOS	en_US
dc.identifier.other	10.1101/2020.07.03.187229
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10166/6285
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.publisher	biorxiv.org	en_US
dc.subject	thermoregulation	en_US
dc.subject	thermal ecology	en_US
dc.subject	marine invertebrates	en_US
dc.subject	Minuca pugnax	en_US
dc.title	Field-based body temperatures reveal behavioral thermoregulation strategies of the Atlantic marsh fiddler crab Minuca pugnax	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US