|
|
|
|
SITE NAME
|
|
NE Planning Area of National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska, USA
|
|
| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| 907-455-6777/907-455-6781(fax) // rjohnson@abrinc.com // ABR, PO Box 80410, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA
|
|
PROJECT DETAILS |
|
Project name:
|
|
Wildlife Studies in NPRA
|
|
|
Start of survey:
|
End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
|
5.06
|
25.08
|
20
|
|
WEATHER
CONDITIONS
|
|
|
|
Weather conditions: |
The 2002 breeding season differed from the preceding 2 years in that snowmelt occurred much earlier and temperatures in May were much warmer. Snow was gone by 17 May at Colville Village (the Helmerick's home site, a coastal location with conditions similar to the CD North ground-search area) as compared to 10 June in 2000 and 7 June in 2001. The mean temperature in May 2002 was -2.7ø C, whereas the 6-yr mean (1997-2002) was -6.3ø C (NOAA: http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html). The mean temperature in June 2002 was 3.2ø C, similar to the 6-yr mean (1997-2002) of 3.4ø C.
For the period of bird arrival (approximately 15-31 May) and nest initiation (1-15 June), 54 thaw-degree days accumulated in 2002, compared to 17 and 34 thaw-degree days in 2000 and 2001, respectively. (Cumulative thaw-degree days are calculated by summing the number of degrees that the daily mean temperature was above freezing [0ø C] for each day during a particular period.) In the adjacent Kuparuk Oilfield, the total number of thaw-degree days in 2002 for the combined arrival and nest initiation periods was the third highest recorded since avian studies were initiated there in 1988 (Anderson et al. 2002, in prep.). The warmer temperatures and lack of snow in 2002 suggests that birds encountered favorable conditions at the time they were initiating nests. Temperatures in late June were cool, averaging <4ø C. Snow fell on 20, 22, and 23 June and on 2-4 July. A storm with high winds that moved through the coastal areas in early July. The same storm, moving eastward, was responsible for the loss by flooding of several Tundra Swan nests monitored on the Mackenzie River delta (H. Swystun, Univ. Northern British Columbia, pers. comm.). We suspect that weather conditions at the time of hatch and early in the brood-rearing period adversely affected productivity of many species of birds on the Colville Delta in 2002.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
<June
|
|
| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
|
|
| Date of final loss of
snow: |
<6.06
|
|
BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
|
| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average
|
|
|
Breeding conditions:
|
We conducted aerial surveys for spectacled eiders, king eiders, tundra swans, yellow-billed loons, and brood-rearing geese. We conducted intensive nest searches for waterfowl, loons, gulls, ptarmigan, and jaegers in one 18.9-km2 area on the Colville River Delta and several areas totalling 15.5 km2 in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. We revisited all nests after hatch to determine success. We conducted nest searches for all birds (primarily shorebirds and passerines) on 24 10-ha plots using multiple rope-dragging and single-observer searches. We measured daily nest survival on these plots and conducted counts of nest predators. Results are summarized in two reports:
Johnson, C. B., R. M. Burgess, B. E. Lawhead, J. P. Parrett, J. R. Rose, A. A. Stickney, and A. M. Wildman. 2003b. Wildlife studies in the CD North study area, 2002. Third annual report prepared for ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc., Anchorage, by ABR, Inc., Fairbanks, AK. 104 pp.
Burgess, R. M., C. B. Johnson, A. M. Wildman, P. E. Seiser, J. R. Rose, A.K. Prichard, T. J. Mabee, A. A. Stickney, and B. E. Lawhead. 2003b. Wildlife studies in the Northeast Planning Area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, 2002. Report prepared for ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc., Anchorage, by ABR, Inc., Fairbanks, AK. 126 pp.
|
|
|
Rodent dynamics:
|
|
|
|
Rodent species recorded:
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
of fauna studies: |
|
|
|