Several aquatic species use beach foreshores to lay their eggs. Understanding the dynamics of egg entrainment versus egg retention in foreshore sediment is important to delivering eggs to foraging species, and to predicting fecundity and population responses of beach nesting species to harvest and habitat management. Exhumation of these eggs is primarily by bioturbation and wave action. This study isolates effects of wave and swash processes on exhumation, entrainment, and transport of horseshoe crab eggs by conducting a 1-day field study designed to avoid effects of bioturbation by spawning and migratory shorebird predation. Dyed sand and horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) eggs were injected into the foreshore of an estuarine beach in Delaware Bay, USA and sampled during 110 swash events using streamer traps. Significant wave heights ranged from 0.30 to 0.47 m. The quantity of eggs exhumed from the mid-foreshore by waves and swash was 3.8 times greater than from the upper foreshore where activation was by swash alone. Swash flows were skewed offshore, but egg transport was predominantly onshore from bore collapse. Egg release was greatest in early rising tide, making this the most productive time for shorebird foraging. Release of eggs from mid-foreshore may be dominated by wave action during high energy days with little spawning or by bioturbation by horseshoe crabs during intensive spawning. Activation depths in the swash were low, indicating that eggs buried on the upper foreshore can reach later stages of development after spawning ceases.

中文翻译：

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波浪和冲刷过程在前陆的卵发掘和运输

几种水生物种利用海滩前滩产卵。了解在前滨沉积物中夹带卵与保留卵的动力学关系对于将卵输送到觅食物种以及预测滩涂物种对收获和栖息地管理的繁殖力和种群响应非常重要。这些卵的发掘主要是通过生物扰动和波动作用。这项研究通过进行为期1天的田间研究来隔离波浪和冲刷过程对hu蟹卵的发掘，引诱和运输的影响，该研究旨在避免产卵和迁徙shore鸟捕食对生物扰动的影响。色织沙和鲎（鲎）将卵注入美国特拉华湾的河口海滩前滩，并在110次冲刷事件中使用流光阱对卵进行采样。显着的波高范围为0.30至0.47 m。通过波浪和斜流从前滨中部挖掘出的卵的数量比仅通过斜流进行活化的上前滨的卵高出3.8倍。斜流在海上偏斜，但鸡蛋的运输主要是由于塌陷而在岸上进行的。在涨潮初期，卵子的释放是最大的，这使它成为水鸟觅食最有效的时间。从前滨中部释放卵的方式可能是高能日产卵少而产生的波浪作用或密集产卵时horse引起的生物扰动。斜盘的激活深度很低，