Wednesday, September 23 at 1:00pm ET

Join us for a webinar on crab habitats in North Carolina with our very own Erin Voigt.

Abstract:

Nursery habitats are key conservation targets, but two competing frameworks can yield conflicting habitat valuations: (1) the Nursery Role Hypothesis (NRH), which values habitats by per-unit-area contribution to adult recruitment, and (2) Effective Juvenile Habitat (EJH), which values habitats by their overall proportional contribution to the adult population regardless of area. Using the Atlantic blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System, North Carolina, we examined how juvenile density, spatial distribution, and habitat footprint interact to shape nursery valuation under both frameworks. We quantified the spatial extent of three nursery habitats, continuous eastern mixed-species seagrass (ESG), ephemeral and patchy western Ruppia maritima seagrass (WSG), and marsh adjacent shallow detrital habitat (SDH), and modeled crab density variation using long-term survey data. WSG had the highest mean juvenile density, followed by ESG and SDH, making WSG the high value habitat under NRH. However, ESG’s footprint was an order of magnitude larger, yielding an estimated 96.01% of the total estimated juvenile abundance, versus 2.82% for WSG and 1.16% for SDH, making ESG the most valued habitat under EJH. These results highlight that habitat valuation depends heavily on the framework applied, and that integrating both density and spatial footprint is essential for effective nursery habitat management and conservation. (Co-author: David B. Eggleston, NCSU- CMAST)

Speaker:

Erin Voigt

Erin Voigt is a marine scientist whose background spans habitat conservation, community ecology, and applied fisheries biology. She received her B.A. in Biology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a M.S. in Ecology from San Diego State University. She completed her PhD. in Marine Science from North Carolina State University, focusing on juvenile blue crab nursery habitat usage and recruitment dynamics, and was a 2019-2020 Global Change Fellow.  Throughout her career, she has been deeply committed to developing and mentoring early-career scientists as well as providing program management and coordination to multiple environmental and climate-based research programs and networks.