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Priorities for Future Research
Least Sandpiper is thought to be relatively abundant and widespread, but aside from a few exceptions, key migratory staging and wintering sites remain to be identified.
Data on breeding biology, entirely lacking for northern populations, is needed in order to compare with trends documented in southern areas with relatively mild climates.
More information on population regulation is needed. Are populations saturated on breeding grounds, or kept low by adverse climate, predation, etc.? Effects of climate change on Least Sandpiper need to be better understood, including effects of earlier onset of spring on timing of breeding, rising sea levels on staging and wintering sites, change in prey composition etc. Arctic-breeding shorebirds may be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of generally low levels of intraspecific genetic variability, which may reduce their ability to adapt to environmental change (Metofte et al. in review). Molecular study on genetic diversity of Least Sandpiper needed.
Nebel, Silke and John M. Cooper. 2008. Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/115
