Size-dependent predation on juvenile sandfish, <i>Holothuria scabra</i> by seagrass-associated crabs
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract High mortality of juvenile Holothuria scabra in seagrass nursery areas has been attributed to predation. In this study, laboratory and field experiments were conducted to determine the effect of the size of two seagrass–associated crabs, Thalamita crenata and Dardanus megistos, on the survival of juvenile sandfish at different sizes (1–10 g). Small juvenile sandfish (1–2 g) offered in field trials were more preferred by small Thalamita and large Dardanus. Non-lethal damage caused by both crabs were also evident, indicating differences in the mode of attack and consumption. The incidence of non-lethal wounds in medium and large juveniles in the laboratory indicate higher incidences of unsuccessful attacks by the crabs. Differences in consumption rate may be related to cheliped morphology and handling techniques, and activity patterns affecting encounter rates. Mortality rates of juvenile sandfish due to T. crenata (CW: 4.30–7.05 cm) ranged from 10–43%, while those by D. megistos (SL: 0.90–2.3 cm) was even higher at 34–53% after 24 h trials. This is the first report that a hermit crab D. megistos is a significant predator of juvenile sandfish. Results provide new insights on crab–soft-bodied prey interactions in tropical seagrass areas. These are also important considerations in stock restoration and ocean-based culture. Given that juveniles (≤10 g) are very vulnerable to predation by these common crab species, growing sandfish to larger sizes is essential prior to release in the field.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".