Biodiversity and population of ghost crabs at sandy beaches of Buntal, Santubong and Pasir Panjang, Sarawak
Ghost crabs of the genus Ocypode are one of the sandy beach communities commonly found on subtropical and tropical shores. The genus consists of 28 species worldwide. They live in burrows along the sandy beaches and have been used as a bioindicator to measure the ecological responses to human distur...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Final Year Project Report / IMRAD |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS)
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/6046/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/6046/4/Sarah%20%28fulltext%29.pdf |
| Summary: | Ghost crabs of the genus Ocypode are one of the sandy beach communities commonly found on subtropical and tropical shores. The genus consists of 28 species worldwide. They live in burrows along the sandy beaches and have been used as a bioindicator to measure the ecological responses to human disturbance. They are nocturnal animals and practise scavenging, predating and detritus feeding behaviour. Generally, they have unequal size of chelipeds between each individual either left or right handed. Three sites were chosen as study sites which are Buntal beach (7 – 8 March 2012), Santubong beach (9 – 10 March 2012) and Pasir Panjang beach (14 – 15 March 2012). In this study, two species of ghost crab: O. ceratophthalmus and O. cordimanus were found. The ghost crabs that inhabit all three beaches are O. ceratophthalmus and Pasir Panjang beach is the only area that inhabit by O. cordimanus. Their handedness ratio for both species is 2:1 for male and female. The male population is higher compared to female population about 19:1. Their populations are estimated to be huge in Buntal beach and Santubong beach based on the burrow counting method. Sediment analysis shows that Buntal beach and Santubong beach has high percentage mass of fine sand while Pasir Panjang beach has high percentage mass of medium sand. The temperature of sediment showed more fluctuations compared to burrow and air. |
|---|