Our August 2018 post about the International Ornithological Conference (IOC) highlighted an exciting conservation project – mapping intertidal wetlands across the globe and documenting how they have changed over the past 30 years.
The data, code and maps associated with the project are open access and available on the Global Intertidal Change website. The associated paper, The global distribution and trajectory of tidal flats, was recently published in the journal Nature.
Why is this relevant to Pacific Birds? Because people and birds love the coasts. Coastal habitats face a number of threats from human activities, especially the tidal mudflats that are so critical to shorebirds in particular. The data from this project show a 17% global loss of intertidal habitats over 30 years.
These data and maps will help conservation practioners look at the intertidal trends at a global scale, but they can also be used regionally and locally to plan for and guide conservation actions.
