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Plastic ingestion lead to reduced body condition and modified diet patterns in the rocky shore crab Pachygrapsus transversus (Gibbes, 1850) (Brachyura: Grapsidae).
Summary
Rocky shore crabs (Pachygrapsus transversus) collected from a reef environment in Brazil were found to have lower body condition and reduced diet diversity when plastic fibers were present in their foreguts. The study provides evidence that plastic ingestion causes real physiological harm and alters feeding behavior in an ecologically important intertidal species.
In this study, we aimed to identify impacts of plastic ingestion by the ecologically important rocky shore crab Pachygrapsus transversus. We sampled individuals from August 2019 to January 2020 in a reef environment and determined their body condition and diet diversity. In order to test our hypothesis that plastic retention in the foregut is able to decrease the condition factor, we compared it between contaminated and non-contaminated individuals. A correlation test of number of ingested plastic fibres against trophic diversity was made to corroborate the hypothesis that plastic ingestion modifies the feeding patterns. Our results demonstrated that contaminated individuals had lower body condition. Also, we confirmed that debris ingestion can influence feeding patterns. These outcomes were probably linked to starvation and nutrient loss effects. We discussed that this crab is a potential sentinel specie for addressing impacts of solid pollution and a candidate for monitoring plastic contamination in reef environments.