Shorebirds are among the most abundant and visible high-latitude vertebrates. Their ecology makes them particularly sensitive to climate change in the arctic. The current distribution of shorebirds on the Arctic Coastal Plain is poorly known because accurate data exist from just a few locations. The Arctic LCC has supported development of habitat selection models that combine bird survey data with remotely-sensed habitat maps to “fill in the gaps” where observations are sparse. In future phases, the distribution maps generated from these models could be ground-truthed and improved, and subsequently used as the basis from which to forecast future shorebird distribution for projected future climate scenarios.
