Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Trade-offs in traits conferring success in permanent and ephemeral habitats are often at odds with few species being able to persist in both types of environments. I examined the effect of sunfish predators on two species of south Florida crayfish to establish the mechanism that limits one species, Procambarus alleni, to short-hydroperiod environments. The crayfish assemblage response to a gradient of sunfish predators and the effect of predation on P. fallax alone was examined. I also examined the effects of sunfish on crayfish growth and quantified activity levels and risky behaviors of both crayfish species. P. alleni dominated at low sunfish densities but dominance shifted with increasing sunfish density. P. alleni was more active and likely to initiate risky behaviors, suggesting that sunfish predators remove the more active P. alleni, reducing their numbers disproportionally to those of P. fallax and allowing P. fallax to dominate crayfish assemblages in long-hydroperiod wetlands.

Extent

viii, 49 p. : ill. (some col.)

Comments

by Christopher M. Kellogg.|Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by Christopher M. Kellogg.

Identifier

FADT3171400

Format

pdf

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