Population Status and Ecology of North Pacific Shorebirds

Alaska is widely recognized as a global center for breeding shorebirds, as ninety percent of the migratory species in the Western Hemisphere have breeding populations in Alaska. Research conducted under this project provides information needed for management agencies to understand factors involved in population changes of shorebird species.

Abstract

The Alaska Science Center’s ‘Population Dynamics, Ecology, and Habitats of North Pacific Shorebirds’ project is conducted by two staff members and includes a variety of research and methodological assessments that inform our partners. Current research objectives include the Pacific Shorebird Migration Project, which uses satellite transmitters to understand the migration ecology and migratory connectivity of Alaska-breeding shorebird species, and assessing the effects of a rapidly increasing population of snow geese on co-occurring shorebirds at a site on Alaska’s North Slope. We are focused on actively summarizing and publishing the results of current research and making datasets from the shorebird program available to future researchers via USGS data releases.

---

Products

Title	Type
Data from the Inventory of Montane-nesting Birds in the Arctic Network of National Parks, Alaska, 1988-2003	Data
Data from the Inventory of Breeding Birds in Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska, 2008	Data
USGS Alaska Science Center Adult Shorebird Morphological Measurement Data	Data
Measurements of Surfbirds (Calidris virgata), Southcentral Alaska 1997-1999	Data
Body Composition of Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica)	Data
Aerial Surveys of Shorebirds at Pre-migratory Staging Sites in Western Alaska, 2018-2019	Data
Measurements Used to Determine the Sex of Bristle-thighed Curlews (Numenius tahitiensis)	Data
Bristle-Thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) Mark-Resight Encounter History from the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge and Surrounding Area, Oahu, Hawaii, 2012-2017	Data
Ways to be different: foraging adaptations that facilitate higher intake rates in a northerly-wintering shorebird compared to a low-latitude conspecific	Publication
Allometrics of Baltic Tellin (Macoma balthica) bivalves from Cook Inlet, AK, and Baie de Somme, France, 2010-2011	Data
Inventory of lowland-breeding birds on the Alaska Peninsula	Publication
Inventory Data of Lowland-Breeding Birds and Associated Vegetation Types on the Alaska Peninsula, 2004-2007	Data
Flexible timing of annual movements across consistently used sites by Marbled Godwits breeding in Alaska	Publication
Migratory Timing and Site Use of Marbled Godwits Breeding in Alaska, 2008-2015	Data
Tracking Data for Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)	Data
Functional ecology of saltglands in shorebirds: Flexible responses to veriable environmental conditions	Publication
USGS Shorebird Research Web Page	Project Website

Contacts

Ruthrauff, Daniel , 907-786-7162
Tibbitts, Theresa , 907-786-7038

Status: onGoing
Start Year: 2001
End Year: 2024

---

Project Sites

Collaborators

FWS - Alaska Region

Location

Alaska Peninsula
Cook Inlet
North Slope Borough
Pribilof Islands
Seward Peninsula
Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge

USGS Mission Area and Program

Ecosystems → Species Management

Major Initiatives

FWS - Science Support Program
USGS - Wetlands and Terrestrial Ecology

Keywords

Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics
Climate Indicators