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Human populations are moving to coastal regions at a rapid pace, and growing populations are creating large impacts on ecological systems through the development of infrastructure and resource use. Urbanization indexes (UI) are used for a wide range of purposes related to understanding how urban growth impacts both urban development and ecological systems. Most UIs are developed using different factors, and there is a lack of standardization across studies even within the same study system. We reviewed the existing literature that utilizes a UI in the context of ecological questions within coastal regions to determine their utility in assessing how ecological impacts vary across coastal environments and are useful in identifying how urban growth is affecting ecosystems and species. We found that existing variation in UI development hampers the ability to make comparisons across studies and systems. To more fully understand the impacts of urbanization we recommend that UIs used in future studies be standardized to facilitate comparisons across time and studies. We offer guidance on how this can be done. 

ABSTRACT Climate‐induced range shifts may displace species into novel habitats where their life history characteristics may differ in response to new physiological conditions. One such species is the mangrove tree crab,Aratus pisonii, that has expanded beyond mangrove habitats into salt marshes, with the help of anthropogenic structures such as boat docks that mimic its natural habitat in many ways. Individuals in the salt marsh grow to smaller sizes and have different reproductive patterns than individuals in the native mangrove or in boat dock habitats. We examined the metabolic rates of crabs associated with each of these three habitats to determine whether changes in energy expenditure could account for the life history changes that have been documented. We found that the metabolic patterns were similar in the three habitats, with metabolic rate increasing with body size and with temperature, being higher for females than for males and increasing during reproduction. However, once these factors were accounted for, there was no additional difference in metabolic patterns between habitats. Combining these patterns with known patterns of temperature differences and differences in food intake between the mangrove, salt marsh, and boat docks provides mechanistic insight into the energy mismatch that has been created by this range expansion from mangroves to salt marshes. The energy dynamics in these different habitats are consistent with and are capable of explaining the observed patterns of life history variation that accompany this range expansion. Our study provides an example of a mechanistic approach to understanding the influence of climate change and associated range shifts on life history variation across habitat types. 

Non-lethal injury in animals is both common and costly. The cost of regenerating autotomized limbs may leave less energy available for processes such as reproduction and growth, leading to trade-offs. Such trade-offs are context-dependent, and an individual’s energy allocation strategies may vary widely based on its condition and the environment. However, many traditional bioenergetics models have relied on fixed energy allocation rules, such as the -rule of dynamic energy budget theory, which assumes a fixed proportion (κ) of assimilated energy is always allocated to growth and maintenance. To determine whether incorporating optimality approaches into bioenergetics models improves the ability to predict energy allocation, we developed a dynamic state variable model that identifies optimal limb regeneration strategies in a model system, the Asian shore crabHemigrapsus sanguineus. Our model predictions align with known patterns for this species, including increased regeneration effort with injury severity, a shift from reproduction to growth as consumption amount increases, and an increase in regeneration effort as regeneration progresses. Lastly, Monte Carlo simulations of individuals from a previous experiment demonstrate that flexible energy allocation successfully predicts reproductive effort, suggesting that this approach may improve the accuracy of bioenergetics modeling. 

Abstract Organisms vary in the timing of energy acquisition and use for reproduction. Thus, breeding strategies exist on a continuum, from capital breeding to income breeding. Capital breeders acquire and store energy for breeding before the start of the reproductive season, while income breeders finance reproduction using energy acquired during the reproductive season. Latitude and its associated environmental drivers are expected to heavily influence breeding strategy, potentially leading to latitudinal variation in breeding strategies within a single species. We examined the breeding strategy of the Asian shore crabHemigrapsus sanguineusat five sites spanning nearly 10° of latitude across its invaded United States range. We hypothesized that the primary breeding strategy of this species would shift from income breeding to capital breeding as latitude increases. We found that though this species’ breeding strategy is dominated by capital breeding throughout much of the range, income breeding increases in importance at lower latitudes. This latitudinal pattern is likely heavily influenced by the duration of the foraging and breeding seasons, which also vary with latitude. We also found that reproductive characteristics at the northern and southern edges of the invaded range were consistent with continued range expansion. We suggest that the reproductive flexibility of the Asian shore crab is a key facilitator of its continued invasion success. Our results highlight the influence of latitude on the breeding strategy of a species and emphasize the need for further research regarding the ecological importance and implications of flexibility in breeding strategies within species. 

Abstract Nonlethal injury is a pervasive stress on individual animals that can affect large portions of a population at any given time. Yet most studies examine snapshots of injury at a single place and time, making the implicit assumption that the impacts of nonlethal injury are constant. We sampled Asian shore crabs Hemigrapsus sanguineus throughout their invasive North American range and from the spring through fall of 2020. We then documented the prevalence of limb loss over this space and time. We further examined the impacts of limb loss and limb regeneration on food consumption, growth, reproduction, and energy storage. We show that injury differed substantially across sites and was most common towards the southern part of their invaded range on the East Coast of North America. Injury also varied idiosyncratically across sites and through time. It also had strong impacts on individuals via reduced growth and reproduction, despite increased food consumption in injured crabs. Given the high prevalence of nonlethal injury in this species, these negative impacts of injury on individual animals likely scale up to influence population level processes (e.g., population growth), and may be one factor acting against the widespread success of this invader. 

Abstract Regeneration of lost appendages is a gradual process in many species, spreading energetic costs of regeneration through time. Energy allocated to the regeneration of lost appendages cannot be used for other purposes and, therefore, commonly elicits energetic trade‐offs in biological processes. We used limb loss in the Asian shore crabHemigrapsus sanguineusto compare the strength of energetic trade‐offs resulting from historic limb losses that have been partially regenerated versus current injuries that have not yet been repaired. Consistent with previous studies, we show that limb loss and regeneration results in trade‐offs that reduce reproduction, energy storage, and growth. As may be expected, we show that trade‐offs in these metrics from historic limb losses far outweigh trade‐offs from current limb losses, and correlate directly with the degree of historic limb loss that has been regenerated. As regenerating limbs get closer to their normal size, these historical injuries get harder to detect, despite the continued allocation of additional resources to limb development. Our results demonstrate the importance of and a method for identifying historic appendage losses and of quantifying the amount of regeneration that has already occurred, as opposed to assessing only current injury, to accurately assess the strength of energetic trade‐offs in animals recovering from nonlethal injury.