Taxon:
Calidris canutus

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Scientific Name
Calidris canutus
Common Name
Red Knot
Taxa Group
Scolopacidae
Environment
Move Mode

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    Data package
    Data from: Kiawah and Seabrook islands are a critical site for the rufa Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa)
    (2022-12-13) Pelton, Mary Margaret; Padula, Sara R.; Garcia-Walther, Julian; Andrews, Mark; Mercer, Robert; Porter, Ron; Sanders, Felicia; Thibault, Janet; Senner, Nathan; Linscott, Jennifer A.
    The rufa Red Knot Calidris canutus rufa is a migratory shorebird that performs one of the longest known migrations among birds and has experienced a population decline of over 85% in recent decades. During migration, rufa Red Knots rest and refuel at stopover sites along the Atlantic Coast of the USA, including Kiawah and Seabrook islands in South Carolina. We document the importance of Kiawah and Seabrook islands forknots during their spring migration using on-the-ground surveys between 19 February and 20 May 2021 to record the occurrence and proportion of individually marked knots, as well as geolocators deployed on knots captured in the area. Using a superpopulation model, we estimated a minimum passage population of 17,247 knots (95% CI: 13,548–22,099; ~41% of the total rufa knot population) and an average stopover duration of 47 days (95% CI: 40.1–54.8). Our geolocator results showed that knots using Kiawah and Seabrook islands can bypass Delaware Bay and fly directly to the Canadian Arctic. Finally, our geolocators, combined with resighting data from across the Atlantic Flyway, indicate that a large network of more than 70 coastal sites concentrated largely in the southeastern USA provide stopover and overwintering habitat for the knots we observed on Kiawah and Seabrook islands. These findings show that Kiawah and Seabrook islands should be recognized as critical sites in the knot network and, therefore, a conservation priority. The threats facing these sites, such as prey depletion, anthropogenic disturbance, and sea level rise, require immediate attention.
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    Data package
    Data from: Study "Red Knot geolocator tracking New Zealand 2013"
    (2024-12-30) Battley, Phil F.; Lisovski, Simeon; Conklin, Jesse R.
    The pace and scale of environmental change represent major challenges to many organisms. Animals that move long distances, such as migratory birds, are especially vulnerable to change since they need chains of intact habitat along their migratory routes. Estimating the resilience of such species to environmental changes assists in targeting conservation efforts. We developed a migration modeling framework to predict past (1960s), present (2010s), and future (2060s) optimal migration strategies across five shorebird species (Scolopacidae) within the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which has seen major habitat deterioration and loss over the last century, and compared these predictions to empirical tracks from the present. Our model captured the migration strategies of the five species and identified the changes in migrations needed to respond to habitat deterioration and climate change. Notably, the larger species, with single or few major stopover sites, need to establish new migration routes and strategies, while smaller species can buffer habitat loss by redistributing their stopover areas to novel or less-used sites. Comparing model predictions with empirical tracks also indicates that larger species with the stronger need for adaptations continue to migrate closer to the optimal routes of the past, before habitat deterioration accelerated. Our study not only quantifies the vulnerability of species in the face of global change but also explicitly reveals the extent of adaptations required to sustain their migrations. This modeling framework provides a tool for conservation planning that can accommodate the future needs of migratory species.