Nursery Habitats for Early-Life Stages of American Horseshoe Crabs in Great Bay-Little Egg Harbor, NJ

Little is known about the preferred nursery habitats of the declining American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. We combined lab experiments with a novel field sampling technique to examine the relatively understudied early stages of horseshoe crab life history in Great Bay-Little Egg Harbor, NJ, a small estuary. Exposing larvae simultaneously to two sediment types in a series of experiments indicated that larvae prefer to settle in large grain sediment, while juveniles showed no preference. Larval preference for large grain sediment was also supported by field collections in 10-60 cm deep waters. While larvae appear to stay close to shore (< 22.9m), juveniles could be migrating to subtidal waters.