American Horshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus) : Population Ecology within the Northern Gulf of Mexico

To better understand the occurrence and population structure of horseshoe crabs in the northern Gulf of Mexico, we sampled animals on Petit Bois Island, Dauphin Island, and Fort Morgan. To determine if major life history events such as spawning, molting, or mortality occurred more frequently at certain locations and times, we counted molts, live animals (noted whether animals were alone or amplexed for spawning), and carcasses. We also tested the hypothesis that demographics of molts or carcasses found on local beaches represent nearby live animal populations by tracking the redistribution of tagged molts placed at variable distances from shore (2, 50, 100 m). Overall, our data suggested a greater occurrence of spawning adults and actively molting juveniles on Petit Bois Island compared to other sites. The number of specimens found at Dauphin Island and Fort Morgan declined since 2012, possibly due to a regional-scale change in environmental conditions. Size frequency distributions of molts and carcasses collected during 2015 were similar to values from previous studies, but showed a higher number of subadult horseshoe crab carcasses in 2015 compared to other years. Tagged molts were recovered at a rate of 2.5%, suggesting that few molts deposited in nearby waters make it to local beaches. Tagged molts were recovered at 1 – 22 days following field placement, with the majority of recovered molts found after 1 day. Because smaller crabs (<40 mm size) stay close to natal beaches when molting, their molts are most likely to wash ashore. Data provided by this study will help inform future research on horseshoe crab ecology and assess how natural and anthropogenic perturbaRons may affect horseshoe crab populaRons in the northern Gulf of Mexico.