Data from: Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus hendersoni) nesting habitat preferences in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada: Habitat modelling and climate change implications

Climate change poses a threat to subarctic ecosystems and subarctic
breeding shorebirds may already be experiencing loss of breeding habitat
due to the changing landscape. In this study, we focus on the Short-Billed
Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus hendersoni (Rowan, 1932), a species of
shorebird that breeds in the subarctic tundra of Canada, around Churchill,
Manitoba. We use Maxent, a presence-only species distribution model, to
identify its breeding habitat preferences and visualize its distribution.
We also estimate the impact of climate change on its breeding habitat
distribution. At a local scale, nest sites were mostly predicted by
vegetation structure, suggesting that this parameter is associated with
nesting requirements. A regional scale analysis highlighted that terrain
roughness and elevation are associated with breeding habitat requirements
of the species as well as climatic conditions throughout the year.
Different climate change scenarios predicted significant modification in
potential breeding habitat. Modelling was based on a relatively small
number of observations because Short-billed Dowitcher nests are both
uncommon on the landscape and highly cryptic. Thus, our findings should be
interpreted with caution. Nonetheless, this study provides valuable
insights into the breeding biology of a poorly studied shorebird species
at one of their few monitored breeding sites.