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Interference competition as a key determinant for spatial distribution of mangrove crabs

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, February 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (63rd percentile)

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1 X user
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2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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21 Dimensions

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83 Mendeley
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Title
Interference competition as a key determinant for spatial distribution of mangrove crabs
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, February 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12898-018-0164-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Stefano Cannicci, Marco Fusi, Filippo Cimó, Farid Dahdouh-Guebas, Sara Fratini

Abstract

The spatial distribution of mangrove crabs has been commonly associated with tree zonation and abiotic factors such as ground temperature and soil granulometry. Conversely, no studies were designed to investigate the role of competition for resources and predation in shaping crab distribution in mangroves, despite these biotic factors are recognised as key determinants for spatial patterns observed in the communities colonising rocky and sandy intertidal habitats.We studied floral and faunal assemblages in two zones of a Sri Lankan mangrove, a man-made upper intertidal level and a natural eulittoral, mid-shore one. Leaf choice experiments were designed to study both feeding rate and intra and inter-specific interactions for food of sesarmid crabs in the two habitats in order to better understand crab spatial distribution. The two intertidal belts differed in terms of floral composition and crab species abundance. The eulittoral zone was strongly dominated by Neosarmatium smithi, while within the elevated littoral fringe four sesarmids (N. smithi, N. asiaticum, N. malabaricum and Muradium tetragonum) were more evenly distributed. At both levels, all sesarmids showed to collect significantly more Bruguiera spp. and Rhizophora apiculata leaves than Excoecaria agallocha ones. There was no temporal segregation in feeding activity among the four species, resulting in a high interference competition for leaves. Regardless of the habitat, N. smithi was always successful in winning inter-specific fights. Our results showed that the elevated littoral fringe was more crowded with crabs, but was less favourable in terms of food availability and environmental conditions. The dominance of N. smithi in gathering mangrove leaves suggests that this species may segregate the other sesarmids into less favourable habitats. The present data strongly suggest for the first time that interference competition for food can contribute to shape mangrove crab spatial distribution.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 83 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 83 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 16 19%
Student > Bachelor 12 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 11 13%
Researcher 7 8%
Lecturer 4 5%
Other 12 14%
Unknown 21 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 25 30%
Environmental Science 20 24%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 2%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 2 2%
Psychology 1 1%
Other 3 4%
Unknown 30 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 November 2021.
All research outputs
#8,264,793
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#1,922
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#166,416
of 470,360 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#33
of 45 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one is in the 46th percentile – i.e., 46% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 470,360 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 45 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 26th percentile – i.e., 26% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.