Loss of habitat, overharvesting and a degrading environment have contributed to the persistent "severe decline" of horseshoe crabs in and around Long Island Sound over more than two decades, according to a report in the journal Nature that reviewed a half-dozen field studies.

There’s a need for more data collection to monitor the species, which has survived 450 million years, according to the study. But one of Long Island’s longest-running surveys of horseshoe crabs ended in June with the closure of Molloy University’s Center for Environmental Research and Coast Oceans Monitoring field station in West Sayville for financial reasons.

The study in Nature’s Scientific Reports catalog horseshoe crabs’ "severe population decline in multiple locations for over 20 years," with declines avera

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