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Integrated Responses Of Crustaceans Inhabiting Estuaries To The Challenges Of Feeding And Digestion In Low Salinity, Daniel Luke Curtis
Integrated Responses Of Crustaceans Inhabiting Estuaries To The Challenges Of Feeding And Digestion In Low Salinity, Daniel Luke Curtis
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Estuaries are highly productive and serve as vital habitats for numerous decapod crustacean species. However, the environmental conditions within estuaries are often highly dynamic and subject to large changes in salinity and temperature that occur on seasonal and tidal scales. Not all of the species occupying these habitats are adept in coping with changes in these environmental conditions. This dissertation describes the influence of low salinity conditions on the 1) habitat preference, 2) feeding behaviour and 3) digestive physiology of crustaceans inhabiting estuaries. I have primarily focussed on a weak osmoregulator, the Dungeness crab, Cancer magister , but have also …