hurricane irene

[CrazyCrab12]

I was just curious how y'all think the wild hermit crabs will react and attempt to survive through hurricane irene. also, Idk if they've had their annual migrations yet, but i think they would've. if the zoea have turned into crabs yet, could they be swept away in the hurricane and die, or populate new areas with crabs? idk, this is just stuff i've been thinking about.

[NLindsey921]

Well the crabs will go inland to escape but that's about the only question i can answer

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

[LadyJinglyJones]

There are areas of the Carribean that aren't affected by seasonal hurricanes. Crab populations in those regions won't do much differently.

In affected areas, coastal dwelling crabs are known to seek higher ground to avoid rising waters (i.e. they climb trees or move inland - and crabbers have witnessed this in their tanks during extreme weather).

Moulting and breeding cycles of local crab populations tend to be synchronized with prevalent seasonal weather trends so that animals don't drown with flooding, and zoea arent decimated. They live in a world of extreme weather their whole lives, so they have to survive it.

Some will die. But a wild population has to be adapted to prevalent conditions to pass on its genes to subsequent generations and, well, live.

That's why climate change is frightening; animal populations that have gradually adapted the the harsh realities of their homes are suddenly finding that the correct times for breeding, migrating, moulting, etc. - are no longer good times to do these things. And they can't learn fast enough what will save them. Populations dwindle & genetic diversity amoung a population drops. It's bad-news-bears.

[aussieJJDude]

If the hermit crabs can sense it, id reckon that the zoea would also. They could either swim out further to sea or could even just swim further down in the water column. But idk, and i dont imagine anyone has studied it tbh.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[wodesorel]

It probably does impact their population numbers on some years, but traditionally they were an abundant species so one bad hurricane timed during spawning wouldn't have made a huge difference. The problem is that due to human interference, their numbers are nowhere near what they were even 100 years ago. They've been nearly extirpated (extinct in parts of their native range) on many islands that once were covered by them. We created a shell shortage, poisoned their water, developed the land they lived on, introduced foreign ant species and rodents that eat their food (and them), and with climate change there are now changes to weather patterns and oceans that are acidifying. So yeah, add another big hurricane to all of that and it would certainly have a much bigger effect on them now. Plus, native populations are not being monitored so we really have no clue how they are doing in terms of population and reproduction, but given how many places they can no longer be found the news is not good.