Energy Flow Through the Fiddler Crabs Uca pugnax and U. minax and the Marsh Periwinkle Littorina irrorata in a North Carolina Salt Marsh

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Abstract
Energy budgets were developed for populations of the fiddler crabs U. pugnax and U. minax and the periwinkle L. irrorata in a Spartina alterniflora marsh in the Cape Fear River Eustuary, North Carolina. Production, respiration and assimilation (kcal m-2 yr-1), respectively, were: 51, 55 and 106 for U. pugnax; 13, 44 and 58 for U. minax, and 8, 94 and 101 for L. irrorata. Assimilation efficiencies were relatively low: 9% for U. pugnax, 8% for U. minax and 14% for L. irrorata. Net growth efficiencies (production/assimilation) were 48% for U. pugnax, 23% for U. minax and 7% for L. irrorata. Together, the 3 spp. consumed the equivalent of about 1/3 of the net production of the emergent marsh and assimilated about 1/10 of that amount.