Cave crabs so powerful? They are changing the American ecosystem and will return to their original appearance
According to reports, a new study found that the salt marsh ecosystem in the southeastern United States is now being quietly changed by burrowing crabs, because the soil salinization is becoming more and more serious, so the burrowing crab has also ushered in a vigorous development of life, with the increasing number of burrowing crabs, the local ecosystem may no longer be able to return to its former appearance.
What is a salt marsh ecosystem?
In simple terms, it is because the surface is too wet or seasonal water, resulting in serious soil salinization, so the local plants are also halophytes, or animals that can survive in the salt marsh. In the southeastern United States, the salt marsh ecosystem here is mainly distributed between the intertidal zones along the seashore, and the plants that grow here mainly include rush grass, fine-leaved rice grass and alternate flower rice grass, as well as a plant known locally as Juncus rosemarianus.
Because the soil environment in the salt marsh is relatively harsh, the variety of animals and plants here is actually very scarce, and the plants are generally annual succulent plants, because in the salty soil environment, these plants must complete their mission in a short period of time, and make themselves more hardy and salt-tolerant.
What are the animals in the salt marsh ecosystem? Researchers say that mosquitoes are one of the most important fauna in the salt marsh ecosystem, they mainly feed on the plants here, in addition, in the soil of the salt marsh, there will be some worms, in addition to shellfish, crabs and other animals.
What is a burrowing crab?
Crabs are mainly divided into two kinds according to different living habits, one is a crab that does not need to punch a hole, and only lives in the water and grass depression, this crab is called "hermit crab", in short, it is to find a place to hide the crab. The other is the crab that can burrow, they are cave crabs.
As we mentioned above, crabs like to live in the ecological environment of salt marsh, so with the flooding of salt marshlands in the southeast of the United States, natural cave crabs have ushered in their own "hole-punching paradise". In the study, the researchers found that with the increase in the number of burrowing crabs, the number of salt marsh plants that were already scarce also disappeared in large quantities because of crab nibbling, so other animals living in the salt marsh began to become food shortages.
According to the researchers, if the burrowing crab continues to rule the salt marsh, then the salt marsh in the southeastern United States may usher in the reshaping of the ecological environment in the future, some species may become extinct, and some species will usher in new vitality like burrowing crabs. So what exactly is it that has changed the salt marsh ecosystem and inspired the "dominance" of burrowing crabs?
Warming may be the main cause
Researchers say that in the past, when the earth's climate environment was not as hot as in recent years, the soil environment in this salt marsh in the southeastern United States was actually not as soft as it is now, and the soil here was once very hard, and it was very difficult for cave crabs to burrow here.
However, in recent years, with global warming, when the sea level rises, a large amount of seawater washes here, the soil is soaked, and nature becomes much softer, so when the soil becomes soft, the burrowing crab also ushered in the spring, they can unscrupulously burrow here, and feed on microorganisms, plants, mollusks and so on.
At the same time, because the number of cave crabs is increasing, many plants are eaten by them, which leads to the original part of the plant covered out, then the shellfish living here, etc., it is easier for predators to find that through data analysis, the number of mussels, snails and other invertebrates here has been less and less because of the increasing number of cave crabs, and perhaps in the future there will be no other animals except for cave crabs.
Of course, this is not a good thing for burrowing crabs, because the salt marsh ecosystem itself is very bad, the number of organisms is limited, resulting in a limited amount of food, if the number of burrowing crabs continues to grow rapidly, they will have a food crisis, after all, the existing organisms in the salt marsh have no way to satisfy them.
Therefore, in order to survive, the burrowing crab may continue to expand its territory, which will lead to further destruction of the salt marsh ecosystem, and even endanger other ecosystems, once caught in a vicious circle, the local ecosystem may begin a new round of reshuffle.
This is a very incredible thing for the researchers, because they did not expect that one day they would destroy the local ecosystem because of such an inconspicuous creature as the burrowing crab. Of course, this also brings new thinking directions to human beings, because with the continuous changes in the earth's climate in the future, there may be other species that are activated like burrowing crabs, and then completely change the ecosystem of a place.