Growth and Trophic Ecology of Juvenile Dungeness Crabs in the South Slough Estuary

Abstract

Estuaries serve as important nursery habitat for young Dungeness crabs throughout their range in the northeastern Pacific. To better understand the function of small estuaries as nursery habitat for juvenile and sub-adult Dungeness crabs, we conducted a multi-year survey of crabs within the South Slough estuary on the southern Oregon coast to explore spatiotemporal patterns in how they use the estuary. Additionally, we used laboratory feeding assays to investigate the use of fatty acids (FA) as biomarkers in juvenile Dungeness crabs and compared the FA composition of juvenile crabs collected in the South Slough estuary to those fed controlled diets in the laboratory. We found that the South Slough estuary functions as important nursery habitat for juvenile crabs and observed that a limitation of high-quality food may contribute to slow juvenile growth during years of massive settlement.