WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Across six migratory shorebird species in the non-breeding season, species-distribution models that incorporated neighborhood habitat composition and configuration generally predicted habitat suitability better than conventional pixel-scale or distance-only models. Important predictors included distance to tidal flats and seasonal inland wetlands, tidal-flat area and patch density, land-cover diversity, and elevation; predicted suitability was only weakly positively correlated with observed abundance for most species.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Habitat is not only the patch under a bird. For mobile species in heavily altered coastal landscapes, surrounding composition and configuration can change which places function as habitat and can change conservation-priority maps.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is modeling evidence for six species, not a demographic test of survival or population growth. Abundance correlations were weak, and the publisher is currently sharing an accepted early version that remains subject to copyediting.
SOURCE
Communications Earth & Environment
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