International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.34, 344-352
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trophic position amongst the invertebrate predators on sandy shores and also play an important role as prey for
other vertebrate predators, so changes in the population of
Ocypode
crab can be used as a ecological indicator to
predict the impact of various factors on sandy shore ecosystems (Chan et al., 2006; Valero-Pacheco et al., 2007;
Lucrezi et al., 2009; Tureli et al., 2009).
Ocypode ceratophthalmus
is the most common brachyuran crab species
occurring on the sandy shore habitat of Gujarat state (Trivedi and Vachhrajani, 2016) still ecology of local
population of the species has not been studied in detail. So, to fill the lacunae of information, the present study
was carried out at accessible sandy shores located on the coastal areas of Gujarat state. In the present study, we
studied the seasonal burrow distribution pattern of
O. ceratophthalma
on four different sandy shores located along
the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, India. We hypothesize that the burrow distribution of the species varies with
different season and between sites and, more specifically that burrow abundance and burrow diameter will vary
along the vertical gradient of the shore.
1 Materials and Methods
1.1 Study area
The present study was conducted on sandy shores at four different sites
viz.
Veraval (20°54‟37” N, 70°21‟04” E),
Sutrapada (20°49‟53” N, 70°29‟17”E), Dhamlej (20°46‟29”N, 70°36‟19” E) and Kodinar (20°45‟29” N, 70°39‟39”
E) on the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat state, India (Figure 1). Study sites like Sutrapada, Dhamlej and Kodinar are
located 30, 40 and 50 kilometers away from Veraval study site respectively. The average width of the sandy shore
at each study site was ~20 meters and all shores were steeply (> 2.5°slope) sloping. All the study sites experience
three different seasons like summer (March to June), monsoon (July to October) and winter (November to
February) in which summer is hot (42°C mean air temperature) while winter is cold (25°C mean air temperature).
The tides are semi diurnal with maximum tidal range of 2 meters.
Figure 1 Map of study area showing the four sampling sites (1) Veraval (2) Sutrapada (3) Dhamlej (4) Kodinar
