Knots are long-distance migratory waders that depend on specific invertebrate prey on UK estuaries, with welfare threatened by climate change affecting food supply.
Knot welfare during UK winter depends on access to dense cockle beds exposed at low tide on key estuaries. Climate change is causing cockle recruitment failure and increased mortality from warming water temperatures, reducing prey availability. Commercial cockle harvesting reduces food supply at already stressed sites. Individual knots unable to meet energetic requirements from declining prey availability face body condition decline. The clustering of knot wintering populations at a small number of key estuaries means habitat deterioration at these sites has outsized welfare consequences for the global population.