End-of-year update: Crustacean Ecology Lab investigates challenges to stone crabs and spiny lobsters
Stone crab at Mote. Credit: Miguel Montalvo/Mote Marine Laboratory
Mote Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Philip Gravinese and the Crustacean Ecology Lab had a productive year, conducting new research and publishing results through five first-author publications. The Crustacean Ecology Lab conducts diverse research dedicated to answering questions aimed at determining the tolerance and response of commercially important crustaceans to different environmental stressors.
The research in Gravinese's lab is currently focused on determining the mechanisms that contribute to stone crab stress and mortality during prolonged, Florida red tide (Karenia brevis) exposure throughout their life cycle. This work will highlight how the future sustainability of the stone crab fishery may be impacted in the years following a severe red tide bloom. His team is also currently working at Mote’s Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration to determine if postlarval spiny lobsters lose their ability to swim toward positive settlement cues under ocean acidification. Their Inability to find a home could result in lower recruitment of spiny lobsters as ocean pH continues to decrease.
Two of Gravinese’s studies were highlighted in 2018:
- Intense red tide can threaten stone crabs, and more research is needed.
- Stone crab fishery could be challenged by ocean acidification, study says.