Priorities for Future Research

Birds ascribed to the subspecies C. c. roselaari evidently have a small population, poorly known breeding range, and wintering range that is only speculatively known. Priority should be given to better understanding of the status and distribution of this group.

The breeding range of C. c. rufa also is poorly known (but see Niles 2000); improved information would help clarify its historical relationship to other races and would enable better prediction of how factors such as global climate change may affect populations and conservation risk assessment.

C. c. rufa population estimates based on census work and on mark-recapture ratios are not in close agreement; additional study of estimates obtained through both methods is warranted and would provide an improved basis for conservation plan-ning.

Commercial harvesting of horseshoe crabs may threaten use of the Delaware Bay by Red Knots as a strategic northward migration staging area. Re-search is needed to identify what horseshoe crab population levels are needed to sustain the knots and/or whether alternative resources are available to them.

For all groups of Red Knots, better information is needed on population sizes, on how populations are concentrating at strategic migration and wintering areas, and on factors that affect population size.

Although populations and migrations of Red Knots are probably better known than for any other Arctic-breeding shorebird, the accuracy of available information is low. Thus, tracking population change is statistically difficult to achieve with current information. Improvement of methods should be a high priority. Red Knots use parts of the world where the effects of global climate change are anticipated to be greatest, including their breeding, wintering, and migration staging areas. The species is thus a potential early barometer of the effects of climate change on highly migratory and vulnerable animals.