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SITE NAME
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Bodfish Island, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, USA
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| // // U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, Biological Science Office, 1011 East Tudor Road Anchorage, Alaska 99503, USA
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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MONITORING BEAUFORT SEA WATERFOWL AND MARINE BIRDS
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Both 2000 and 2001 were considered years of late ice breakups, yet ice breakup in 2002 was even later. Consequently, median initiation date was delayed in 2002 and fewer eiders nested. Among nesting Common Eiders clutch size did not vary from previous years.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
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Breeding conditions:
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| Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) and Glaucous gulls were the principal nest predators on the study area. On 3 July a fox was observed on West Egg Island. The single fox, followed closely by many gulls, destroyed every active eider (n=29) and gull (n=6) nest on the island in less than four hours. When we examine only the areas searched in all three years, we see a steady decrease in the total number of eider nests found in each year of the study (2000: 470, 2001: 301, 2002: 194). Similarly, the number of Glaucous gull nests has decreased since 2000 (2000: 66, 2001: 43, 2002: 12). Hatching success was extremely low (3.8%) in Common Eiders, due to predation by Arctic Foxes and Glaucous Gulls.
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Rodent dynamics:
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
| In summer 2002, we completed the fourth season of a combined research program designed to assess the breeding ecology of Pacific Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima v-nigra) and molting ecology of Long-tailed Ducks (Clangula hyemalis) along the Beaufort Sea Coast of Alaska. In 2002, we found a total of 358 nests of all species (including 327 eider nests) across study areas. Of the eider nests, one was a King eider, 208 were Common Eider, and 118 were of unknown eider species (because neither females nor intact eggs were present; based on habitat characteristics these were likely Common Eider nests).
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