The tide is high: Tidally-associated genetic markers of an invasive coastal crab in the Northwest Atlantic

The ecology of invasive marine species holds many mysteries, ranging from the precise mechanics of adaption in foreign environments to the heritability of behaviors exhibited in the native range, and the globally-invasive crab Carcinus maenas (L.) provides a good model for examining the extent of the relationship between environment, genetics and behavior in invasive populations. To accomplish this, I sampled Carcinus maenas adults and juveniles from an array of sites along the Northwest Atlantic coast and examined how local tidal conditions affected genetic variation and allele frequency patterns in four candidate markers hypothesized to be associated with tidal amplitude in this species. Expecting the patterns I found to closely mirror those previously discovered in the native range, I found that one of the four tidal markers I used displayed the same allele frequency trend in both the native and invasive ranges. This suggests that tidal amplitude is a strong driver for selection in Carcinus maenas in both native and foreign environments, but sampling more sites in the future is needed for a more conclusive assertion of this idea.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Bakari, Kela

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Tepolt, Carolyn K.
• Pineda, Jesus

• Carcinus maenas
• Genetics
• Invasive species

DOI

10.1575/1912/72772

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/72772