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USGS2026

Nest site and habitat changes over 15 years in a predicted climate refugium in Beluga, AK, USA, have a positive impact on Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) nest survival

Climate change is transforming the Arctic and sub-Arctic at a pace that threatens many taxa with population declines and extinction. However, some habitats–such as muskeg bogs–can serve as climatic refugia and lessen the effects of a changing climate on the species that rely on them. Hudsonian Godwits ( Limosa haemastica ) are a species of migratory shorebird that utilizes the muskeg bogs of Alaska and Canada to breed. Our study focused on a muskeg bog in Beluga, Alaska, USA to see if it had changed from 2009 to 2023, if the availability of Godwit nests sites in the bogs changed in concert, and if Godwit nest survival was affected by any of these changes. We found that, overall, the bog dried and became more vegetated, with the proportional cover of graminoids, shrubs, and forbs all increasing during our study. Godwit nest sites also changed, with the proportion of shrubs and graminoids around nests increasing over time. Nonetheless, these changes did not negatively impact Godwit nest survival. Instead, nest survival increased ~ 22% during our study period, and we observed no decline in the number of potential nests sites available to Godwits. Taken together, these results suggest that while muskeg bogs are changing, they are also currently acting as climate refugia for Godwits. However, it is unclear for how long muskeg bogs can continue to buffer Godwits and other species from the effects of climate change.

Alaska↗

USGS2026

Growth, movement, and survival of precocial shorebird chicks are constrained by their environment.

Young animals are often less mobile than adults, while also having high energetic demands. They may therefore be more vulnerable to local-scale changes in environmental conditions. In particular, when 1 sex must grow more rapidly than the other to achieve a larger adult size, that sex may experience especially dramatic reductions in growth and survival in the face of suboptimal environmental conditions. In order to investigate the flexibility of individuals in response to local-scale environmental variation during development, we studied the sex-specific growth, movement, and survival of Hudsonian Godwit ( Limosa haemastica ) chicks—a sexually dimorphic, precocial shorebird that breeds in the sub-Arctic and exhibits a male-skewed adult sex ratio. We found that female chicks—which must grow to a larger adult size—reached their maximum growth rates at a later age, but had similar growth rates to males before that and survived equally well to 21 days. We also found that, irrespective of sex, chicks had reduced movement rates when they were young and/or temperatures were cold, and only weakly increased their movement rates when invertebrate abundances remained low across an entire week. Early in life, godwit chicks may therefore be constrained from increasing their foraging efforts by local environmental conditions, forcing females to sustain higher growth rates late in the season past the local resource peak. Such sex-specific vulnerabilities could lead to lower early-life survival and, in turn, skewed adult sex ratios, which have important implications for population dynamics and persistence.

Behavioral Ecology↗