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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 253-262.doi: 10.13287/j.1001-9332.202601.032

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Prediction of potential suitable habitats for Limosa limosa in China based on MaxEnt model

JIANG Zeng1, ZHANG Minhao2, SHAO Mingqin1*   

  1. 1College of Life Science, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China;
    2College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100091, China
  • Received:2025-06-19 Revised:2025-11-03 Published:2026-07-18

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Abstract: To understand the potential suitable habitats of Limosa limosa and clarify the dominant environmental factors affecting its distribution, we collected a total of 239 distribution sites and 29 environmental variables, and simulated with the MaxEnt model. The results showed that the dominant factors influencing the suitable habitats for L. limosa during the breeding period included isothermality, slope, elevation, distance to major water, distance to paddy field, distance to village, and mean temperature of the coldest quarter. During the breeding period, L. limosa preferred inland wetlands and their surrounding grassland and farmland with high annual temperature variation, low winter temperature, medium elevation, low slope, near water sources and with little human activity. The dominant influencing factors during the overwintering period were precipitation of the coldest quarter, slope, distance to major water, normalized vegetation index, elevation, and mean diurnal temperature range. During the overwintering period, L. limosa preferred areas with a certain amount of rainfall during the coldest season, low elevation and slope, closer to water sources, low temperature variation and suitable degree of concealment. The highly suitable area for the L. limosa during the breeding period covered an area of 17.8×104 km2, and was mainly distributed in northern Xinjiang, central and northeastern Inner Mongolia, with a few breeding sites in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. The highly suitable area for the overwintering period covered an area of 6.1×104 km2, and was mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (such as Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi provinces) and its southern coastal provinces (such as Fujian and Guangdong provinces). Due to the influence of human activities and global warming, the wintering area of the L. limosa has gradually shifted from the coastal areas to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in recent years. Our findings hold significant implications for the conservation of L. limosa population and habitat management.

Key words: Limosa limosa, shorebirds, MaxEnt model, potential suitable habitat