Horseshoe Crabs & Sea-level Rise

• Horseshoe crabs lay their eggs on beaches along the estuary. Sea-level rise submerges some of these sandy areas, leaving horseshoe crabs fewer places to spawn.
• Horseshoe crab eggs and young also face other climate risks. Hotter temperatures and intense storms can reduce survival rates.
• If horseshoe crabs suffer, so do species that depend on them. For example, Rufa Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) shorebirds rely on eating horseshoe crab eggs in Delaware Bay during a stopover on their yearly 9,000-mile migration.
• To learn more about how horseshoe crab populations and habitats are changing, and how to better protect them, ecologists and volunteers visit local beaches and do counts of crabs and eggs.
• Horseshoe crab counts in some areas of the estuary are holding steady so far, while in others, like Jamaica Bay, populations have been declining over the past decade.
• Interested in helping out with a horseshoe crab count? Find monitoring sites in New York and New Jersey.

Mollusks (Channeled Whelk, Knobbed Whelk, Quahog) & Ocean Acidification

• Mollusks need carbonate in seawater to build the hard shells that protect their soft bodies. A process called ocean acidification is reducing the amount of carbonate (CO32-) available to them, which means their shells can become thin and brittle.
• Ocean acidification is related to the same greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The oceans absorb some of the excess carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere when we burn fossil fuels, and this changes the oceans’ chemistry.

Forbes Sea Star & Warming Waters

• Higher water temperatures are linked with diseases that can harm or kill sea stars, including sea star wasting disease.
• Forbes sea stars also seem to be expanding their range as waters warm, moving north into areas that were previously too cold for them.
• Beyond sea stars, higher temperatures displace marine animals of many kinds. In general, marine species are moving 5-10 times faster than land species. Eventually, they’ll run out of places to go.

Atlantic Purple Sea Urchin & Warming Waters

• Sea urchins are relatives of sea stars. (Both belong to the phylum of marine species called echinoderms.) Like their relatives, they’re likely to experience some negative effects from warming waters, though perhaps to a lesser extent than sensitive sea stars. Research suggests that higher temperatures reduce urchins’ ability to reproduce.

Find Out More

• Find out which Northeast fish and shellfish species are most affected by climate change using NOAA Fisheries’ Climate Vulnerability Assessment Tool.
• See the in-depth research behind NOAA climate assessments for the Horseshoe Crab, Channeled Whelk, Knobbed Whelk, Northern Quahog, and Maine’s climate assessment for the Forbes Sea Star.

Get a close-up look at these animals in the Izzo Family Touch Tank at Our Hudson Home