Estrutura populacional e distribuição do ocypode quadrata (crustacea: brachyura) em Stella Maris – Salvador – Bahia

Abstract

Beaches are dynamic systems where elements such as wind, water, currents, waves, tides and sand interact in complex hydrodynamic and depositional processes. Among the animals that inhabit this ecosystem, crabs of the genus Ocypode are among the most noticed. The Ocypode quadrata crab occurs throughout the entire Brazilian coast, being restricted to the West Atlantic coast, being the only representative of the Ocypode genus on the Brazilian coast, having as habitat from the intertidal zone to the dunes of the sandy beaches. This study aimed to characterize the population structure and distribution in the beach area of the O. quadrata crab on the beach of Stella Maris in Salvador Bahia. Sampling was carried out on August 1, 2020 during the daytime, during low tide at Stella Maris beach, Salvador, Bahia. On the beach, three transects perpendicular to the water line were set up in each of the regions (anthropized and non-anthropized). Throughout each transect, all holes with marks of use were counted and measured as to the diameter of their opening. A difference in the number of burrows was observed between the transects of the “Non-anthropized” and “Anthropized” regions, with the transects with the largest number of burrows in the “Anthropized” region. In general, the largest burrows were in the “Non-Anthropized” region, suggesting that organisms with a larger body size are also in this region. For both the “Anthropized” and “Non-Anthropized” regions, the largest burrows were located in the upper zones of the intertidal and in the supralittoral, suggesting a stratification related to the body size of the organisms with smaller organisms inhabiting the humid regions of the intertidal.