|
|
RESPONDENT
|
|
Benoit Sittler
|
|
|
SITE NAME
|
|
Traill Island, Karupelv Valley, Greenland, Denmark
|
|
| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (49-761)2033629/(49-761)2033638 // sittler@ruf.uni-freiburg.de // Institut fur Landespflege Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
|
|
PROJECT DETAILS |
|
|
|
Start of survey:
|
End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
|
|
|
|
|
WEATHER
CONDITIONS
|
|
|
|
Weather conditions: |
| Based on partial information provided by the sledge patrols Sirius, snow depths in winter must have been less than on average. In addition we noticed an advancement of the snowmelt by more than one week, with the area nearly completely free of snow by the end of June. Likewise, pack ice receded quite earlier than usually, with large parts of the fjord already free of ice around mid-July.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
|
|
| Date of final loss of
snow: |
|
|
BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
|
| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
|
|
|
Breeding conditions:
|
Scarcity in lemmings, as usual, was also perceivable in the situation for the predators. While Snowy Owls were fully absent, there were only very few breeding attempts among Long-tailed Skuas and only two fox dens were occupied (with probably only one young in each still alive mid August). The fact that 13 out of the 403 lemming winter nests were used as winter quarter by Stoats suggests that possibly this unusual high pressure could have prevented a recovery of the lemming population (since such high ratios were always linked to lemming lows). Regarding breeding birds, we failed recording any breeding ptarmigan and for waders, casual observations suggest that despite early snowmelt, numbers of breeding pairs was less than on average. In addition, judging from the very small number of fledged waders observed in August, breeding success should be classified as low.
Boat journeys organized at the end of July and in early August suggest that patterns were similar in the region of Mesters Vig (72ø15'N, 24ø00'W), as well as in the main valleys of Lyells Land (72ø30'; 25ø00'W).
|
|
|
Rodent dynamics:
|
| Routine surveys of winter nests have shown that lemming population, while displaying a moderate increase, had not really recovered from the low recorded in 2001, despite several reproduction indices in these nests. This situation was also in line with observations from live trapping, suggesting that densities at snow melt were clearly below one animal per 1 hectare.
|
|
Rodent species recorded:
|
| Latin | Abundance |
|---|
| Dicrostonyx groenlandicus | rare |
|
|
|
Summary
of fauna studies: |
|
|
|