Migratory Bird Habitat Change in China Under Climate Scenarios, 2014-2070

23 migratory bird species from the IUCN Red List were modeled from 2014-2017 to the mid-21st century (2041-2070). The study by Jie Liang of Hunan University used a Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to project habitat suitability changes under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios. It found the Pearl River basin lost 13% of suitable habitat and the population centroid moved about 50 km northeast on average.

Use Cases

• Modeling future habitat suitability for migratory birds based on climate variables like minimum temperature (t_min).
• Analyzing spatial shifts in species population centroids based on projected habitat changes.
• Assessing regional habitat loss under different climate scenarios, such as the 9.74% loss in the Yangtze River basin.
• Identifying dominant environmental constraints (e.g., NDVI in southeast China, altitude in northern China) for species distribution.

Strengths

• Focuses on 23 species from 7 orders on the IUCN Red List, providing a targeted conservation perspective.
• Projects habitat changes under two specific climate scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) with quantified outcomes.
• Reports specific regional habitat loss percentages, such as 13% for the Pearl River basin.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Jie Liang, Hunan University, via paperswithcode.

Collection Method

Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) species distribution modeling.

Time Range

Current (2014-2017) to mid-21st century (2041-2070).

Geography

China, with specific mentions of the Yangtze River basin and Pearl River basin.