Purple crabs clobber blue carbon

by John Wallace, College of William & Mary
December 4, 2024

Millions of purple marsh crabs are churning through salt marshes along the East Coast, significantly disrupting the storage of carbon within these ecosystems.

The small crabs’ constant burrowing and consumption of the cordgrass lead to erosion and a 40-70% loss in carbon, according to the results of a study by a team of marine ecologists and coastal geologists at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS.

Serina Wittyngham led the study as a postdoctoral researcher working in the lab of coauthor Matt Kirwan, coastal geologist and professor at the Batten School & VIMS. She notes that blue carbon, or carbon captured by oceans and coastal systems, is considered an important factor in meeting future climate goals. However, the impact of animals on carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems is not well documented.

“Most researchers who study blue carbon cycling stop at the plants, but we asked, ‘what about the creatures removing the plants?’” said Wittyngham, who leaned on the marine ecology expertise she gained while earning her Ph.D. at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences under the guidance of academic advisor and study coauthor David Samuel Johnson. “Part of what made this study unique was how we combined the expertise of the coauthors to look at carbon cycling in a way that hadn’t been fully considered before.”

Keep reading: https://news.wm.edu/2024/12/04/purple-crabs-clobber-blue-carbon/

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4385