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RESPONDENT
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Benoit Sittler
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SITE NAME
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Traill Island, Karupelv Valley, Greenland, Denmark
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| 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
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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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: |
| Judging from snow melt conditions at the arrival in the field on June 25, evidence was that snow cover was rather lower than average, with less than 2% of the tundra still covered with snow. Likewise, also sea ice receded earlier than on average, the fjord having been cleared of main ice around July 10th.
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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: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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| In agreement with low lemming abundance were the densities and behaviour of the main predators. While, as expected, Snowy Owls were fully absent, no breeding attempt among Long-tailed Skuas was observed in the restricted study area. Likewise, apart from two dead pups in the main den found in early July, no other indices of reproduction attempts were observed among Arctic Foxes. Foxes were present in the area apparently only in small numbers, which were very difficult to assess exactly (maximum one couple in an area covering 2000 ha). Stoats that had occupied 4 out the 56 winter lemming nests during the winter had probably moved away from this part of the valley in summer. Indeed, beside the lack of any direct observation, trapping also failed revealing any presence in summer. Noticeable were also the lack of any ptarmigan observation during the whole season, contrasting with the discovery of remains (winter-carcasses) of at least 19 pluckings. Likewise, not a single King Eider was found breeding. Among waders, the reduced number of Turnstone families (n=2) and Dunlins (2 pairs) that were territorial deserves mention. These preliminary data suggest that in general breeding success among waders was low during the summer 2003.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Several observations and approaches confirm a continuation of a lemming low over winter into the summer season. With only 56 lemming winternests recorded, this was the absolute minimum in the 16 years time series. Not surprising was therefore the failure to capture any lemmings in the traps, suggesting densities below the level of detection (less than 1 animal/10 ha).
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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