Climate Change & Horseshoe Crabs

     This past November I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Jane Brockmann of the University of Florida.  Dr. Brockmann is also one of the editors (along with Carl Shuster and the late Bob Barlow) of the classic book "The American Horseshoe Crab."  Here are her responses to two of my questions:

There was an article that was bouncing around the Internet a couple months ago - various permutations on the climate change and its effect on horseshoe crabs. I’m wondering if you had any views on that, pro or con.

     Sea level is definitely rising and horseshoe crabs are very dependent on having good beaches for laying their eggs.  There are a wide array of things that make a beach good, but they do need a beach or some kind of well oxygenated sand in which to lay their eggs and that’s what this annual migration is all about. Of course, sea level rise has happened many times in the past and horseshoe crabs, of course, have survived all of them, very nicely. However, this sea level rise is different in the sense that there is now development behind the beaches, even in places like Delaware, where they have done a wonderful job of preserving the coastline, and Georgia, too. If the sealevel rises enough, then it’s going to flood those beaches. Now in the past, that’s been fine, because that beach sand was just moved further up the shoreline and they had beaches in ten miles from the previous shoreline, but now we’re not going to allow that to happen; we’re going to be putting up raised land and blocks of various sorts and we’re going to lose beaches (they are not going to re-form as they have in the past). I think it is very worrisome that we will lose our beaches and because of our development, there’s really no place for a new beach to form farther inland. So I think it is a big worry, yes. I’m from Florida, so a good chunk of that state is going to be lost and our beautiful beaches are going to be lost. It is definitely going to be difficult for the shorebirds and the horseshoe crabs.

You see a negative impact here? Both for the crabs and the birds?

     I think it’s very likely [that there will be an impact from global warming]. Shorebirds are also feeding in estuarine areas and those estuaries are going to be inundated with sea level rise.. It’s a big problem. And then, with these species, such as the red knot that nest so far north, I think the warming of the northern areas is also going to have an effect on their ability to reproduce. Red knots nest as far north as you can find land and those animals are definitely going to be affected by increasing temperatures. It’s going to affect the insects they feed on; it’s going to affect their nesting sites; it’s going to affect their migration; sea level rise and global warming are definitely going to affect these species.

Please note:  Other questions from this interview (and Dr. Brockmann's responses) will be posted on this blog in the near future.  Please stay tuned.