Open AccessMetals in horseshoe crab eggs from Delaware Bay, USA: temporal patterns from 1993 to 2012
Author(s) -
Joanna Burger,
Nellie Tsipoura
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
environmental monitoring and assessment (print)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.59
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1573-2959
pISSN - 0167-6369
DOI - 10.1007/s10661-014-3901-8
Subject(s) - horseshoe crab , limulus , bay , mercury (programming language) , trophic level , fishery , cadmium , biology , ecotoxicology , ecology , zoology , geography , chemistry , paleontology , archaeology , organic chemistry , computer science , programming language
The health of horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) eggs is important not only to maintain horseshoe crab populations, but because they are a resource for higher trophic levels, such as fish and shorebirds. We examined the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and selenium in the eggs of horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay (between New Jersey and Delaware, USA) in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, and 2012 to determine if there were significant temporal changes and if levels appear to pose a health risk to the crabs themselves, or to predators that consume them. All metal levels declined in horseshoe crab eggs between 1994 and 2012, although the declines were much less consistent for lead and chromium than that for mercury and cadmium. Levels of contaminants found in these eggs are well below those known to cause adverse effects in the crabs themselves or to organisms that consume them, such as migrating shorebirds.