DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jwstqjq50
title: Data from: The importance of using topographic features to predict climate-resilient habitat for migratory forest landbirds: an example for the Rusty Blackbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Canada Warbler

description: Maintaining a functionally-connected network of high-quality habitat is
 one of the most effective responses to biodiversity loss. However, the
 spatial distribution of suitable habitat may shift over time in response
 to climate change. Taxa such as migratory forest landbirds are already
 undergoing climate-driven range shifts. Therefore, patches of
 climate-resilient habitat (also known as “climate refugia”) are especially
 valuable from a conservation perspective. Here, we performed maximum
 entropy (Maxent) species distribution modeling to predict suitable and
 potentially climate-resilient habitat in Nova Scotia, Canada, for three
 migratory forest landbirds: Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus),
 Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), and Canada Warbler (Cardellina
 canadensis). We used a reverse stepwise elimination technique to identify
 covariates that influence habitat suitability for the target species at
 broad scales, including abiotic (topographic control of moisture and
 nutrient accumulation) and biotic (forest characteristics) covariates. As
 topography should be relatively unaffected by a changing climate and helps
 regulate the structure and composition of forest habitat, we posit that
 the inclusion of appropriate topographic features may support the
 identification of climate-resilient habitat. Of all covariates, Depth to
 water table was the most important predictor of relative habitat
 suitability for the Rusty Blackbird and Canada Warbler, with both species
 showing a strong association with wet areas. Mean canopy height was the
 most important predictor for the Olive-sided Flycatcher, whereby the
 species was associated with taller trees. Our models, which comprise the
 finest scale species distribution models available for these species in
 this region, further indicated that, for all species, habitat (1) remains
 relatively abundant and well distributed in Nova Scotia and (2) is often
 located in wet lowlands (a climate-resilient topographic landform). These
 findings suggest that opportunities remain to conserve breeding habitat
 for these species despite changing temperature and precipitation regimes.
description: Please refer to our paper, "The importance of using
 topographic features to predict climate-resilient habitat for migratory
 forest landbirds: an example for the Rusty Blackbird, Olive-sided
 Flycatcher, and Canada Warbler" (10.1093/condor/duz057).
description: This geodatabase contains relative habitat suitability surfaces
 (created using Maxent modeling software) for the Rusty blackbird (RUBL),
 Olive-sided Flycatcher (OSFL), and Canada warbler (CAWA). For these
 surfaces, values closer to 1 delineate more suitable habitat and values
 closer to 0 delineate less suitable habitat. The geodatabase also contains
 binary suitability maps for these three species, which were created by
 applying the MaxSS threshold. Detailed information
 pertaining to these models and their creation can be found in our
 paper, "The importance of using topographic features to predict
 climate-resilient habitat for migratory forest landbirds: an example for
 the Rusty Blackbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and Canada
 Warbler" (10.1093/condor/duz057).