Abstract
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup®, one of the most commonly used pesticides in the United States. We conducted a series of bioassays to examine the effects of Roundup® Weed and Grass Killer III (containing 2% glyphosate) on Stage 20 embryos of the American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. Embryos were exposed to concentrations of Roundup® ranging from 0.01% to 10.0%, for 24, 48, and 72 hr. There was little or no mortality among horseshoe crab embryos at concentrations of ≤5% Roundup®, with LC50’s estimated between 8.3% and 8.9% Roundup®. Embryos exposed to concentrations of Roundup® ≥0.5% took about twice as long to hatch into first instar (trilobite) larvae. A previously unreported type of abnormality was found among some embryos cultured at the higher Roundup® levels, wherein malformed embryos appeared to prematurely hatch from the inner egg membrane. Toxicity and developmental delays were only observed at Roundup® concentrations that were several orders of magnitude higher than typically found in sewage effluent; therefore, the likelihood of Roundup® having significant effects on natural populations of horseshoe crabs is extremely low. There is the potential for pesticides accumulated in horseshoe crab eggs to be ingested by shorebirds and other predators, and this possibility deserves further attention.
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Acknowledgements
HV thanks Dr. Mary Hamilton and the Fordham Natural Sciences Department for so generously funding this research and Dr. Deborah Luckett for her help securing the grant, her humor, and her crab name suggestions throughout the summer. We thank Royall McMahon-Ward, Kylie Rothwell, Christina Colón, and Adam Aly for assistance in the field and laboratory. We are also grateful to the New York City Department of Parks and Dr. George Frame from the National Park Service, Gateway National Recreation Area for issuing the necessary permits to MLB to conduct research at Plumb Beach. We also thank the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for issuing a Scientific Collecting License to MLB to collect horseshoe crab eggs.
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VanDerwater, H., Khoder, K., Botton, M.L. (2022). The Effects of Roundup® (a Glyphosate-Based Herbicide) on the Survival and Development of American Horseshoe Crab, Limulus polyphemus. In: Tanacredi, J.T., et al. International Horseshoe Crab Conservation and Research Efforts: 2007- 2020. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82315-3_34
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