Each year shorebirds from North and South America migrate thousands of miles to spend the summer in the Arctic. There they feed in shoreline marshes and estuaries along some of the most productive and pristine coasts anywhere. With so much available food they are able to reproduce almost explosively; and as winter approaches, they retreat south along with their offspring, to return to the Arctic the following spring. This remarkable pattern of movement and activity has been the object of intensive study by an international team of ornithologists who have spent a decade counting, surveying, and observing these shorebirds. In this important synthetic work, they address multiple questions about these migratory bird populations. How many birds occupy Arctic ecosystems each summer? How long do visiting shorebirds linger before heading south? How fecund are these birds? Where exactly do they migrate and where exactly do they return? Are their populations growing or shrinking? The results of this study are crucial for better understanding how environmental policies will influence Arctic habitats as well as the far-ranging winter habitats used by migratory shorebirds.

About the Author
Jonathan R. Bart is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center of the USGS in Boise, ID. Victoria Johnston is a former biologist, now Policy Analyst, for Environment Canada and is based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Reviews
"This volume represents a major milestone for the monitoring of wader populations... It will serve as a point of reference." -- Graham Austin Brit Trust Ornithology (Bto) "A massive coordinated effort to gain a robust understanding of population dynamics and trends of arctic nesting shorebirds... Highly recommended." -- J. C. Kricher, Wheaton College (MA) Choice "This clearly written and well-edited volume...is chalk full of data and contains more complete and nuanced discussions about what those data mean than one would find in equivalent journal articles." -- Chris S. Elphick The Quarterly Review of Biology



Book Information
ISBN 9780520273108
Author Jonathan Robert Bart
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 1179g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 178mm * 23mm