Grosholz 9400706 The recent introduction of the green crab, Carcinus maenas, will likely have profound, community wide effects on the fauna of coastal embayments along the Pacific coast of the North America. The green crab is a voracious predator that strongly depresses the abundance of invertebrate prey in its native range as well as areas where it has been previously introduced. By reducing the abundance of benthic invertebrates, the predatory activities of the green crab can have cascading effects by reducing the abundance of wintering shorebirds, fishes and other predators that feed on benthic invertebrates in these habitats. Although invasions are common in marine and estuarine systems, the direct and indirect effects are rarely documented. Serendipitously, the green crab was discovered eight months ago in Bodega Harbor on the reserve of the Bodega Marine Lab of the University of California, Davis, where extensive data have been collected for the past ten years on the abundance of both invertebrate and shore birds species. This project will document the impact of this introduced predator on populations of benthic invertebrates and the resulting effects on the abundance of wintering shorebirds. ***
