Project Title: Investigating the effect of salinity on mud crab parasite communities
Date: 7/2018-12/2018
Principal Investigator(s): Carolyn Tepolt, Zachary Tobias
Affiliations: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Department of Biology
Summary: The flatback mud crab, Eurypanopeus depressus, is a common estuarine crustacean from the Gulf of Mexico to New England. It is affected by a range of parasites that may vary with the environment. The goal of this project is to characterize the parasite communities within E. depressus along salinity gradients throughout the Northeast. Studies have shown that some crab species may use low salinity water as refuges from marine parasites. We will investigate how these crabs may have adapted to low salinity in response to pressures from parasitism using ecological field surveys and transcriptomic analyses.
