Research
Current and Past Research
Crab Population Monitoring
Carcinus maenas - European green crab
The San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is one of eight
reserves piloting a long-term biomonitoring project to assess estuarine crab
communities. Following the protocol developed at the Elkhorn Slough NERR, crab
communities are sampled quarterly across the estuarine gradient in China Camp
and Rush Ranch. Preliminary data from China Camp indicate that the invasive
European green crab (Carcinus maenas) represents 28-98% of crab catch per
transect by biomass and 5-75% by number of individuals. The native mud crab
(Hemigrapsus oregonensis) comprises the remaining catch. Data gathered during
the monitoring of abundance, sex, and size of the native and invasive crabs over
time, coupled with the NERR water-quality monitoring data, will provide an
"early warning" indicator of new invasions and test hypotheses about invasive
species and their relationship to environmental and biotic parameters. Over
time, the results will allow us to observe abundance trends and changes in intra-
site distribution and aggregation patterns. As this monitoring program is
adopted system-wide across all the 27 of the reserves, it will enable geographic
comparisons of the dynamics of these invasions.
Would you like your research highlighted on this website?
If you are scientist doing research within the Reserve, and would like to have a general summary of your research presented here, please contact our Research Coordinator (mferner at sfsu.edu).