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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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15.06
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| By the time of arrival in the field on June 15, snow cover was already below 0,01 % in the Karupelv Valley, with compelling evidence that in 2005, snow melt was completed by far earlier than in all other years of the project. Such early melt suggests that snow accumulation during winter time was probably not excessive or may have been affected by warm weather especially in late winter - early spring (March-May). Likewise, the year 2005 was also unprecedented in the long term record of the timing of the retreat of ice covering the fjord, packice becoming dismantled as early as July 5th.
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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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The response to low lemming abundance among the predators in summer was fully in line with this poor offer in their staple prey at snow melt: absence of Snowy Owls, no reproductive output among Long tailed Skuas as well as no breeding success for Arctic Foxes.
A striking feature revealed by the winternest surveys was the very high number of nests taken over by stoats. The figure of 30 such nests is even the absolute record for the present time series and testifies to an overall presence of stoats in wintertime. Such high numbers are typical for the onset of the low phase after a lemming high and as a matter of course, despite records of winter reproduction, lemming population was unable to increase.
Complementary observations conducted in several other sites around Kong Oscars Fjord (72ø15 to 73ø Latitude North) confirmed that patterns recorded on Traill Island (Karupelv Valley) were also the rule on this regional basis, with no departing situation documented elsewhere.
In several species hatching dates were noticeably in advance (by one week for Barnacle Geese as well as for the only observed Ptarmigan family). Regarding waders, an early hatching date (30 June) was also observed for a Dunlin pair. Apart of Turnstones whose breeding number was low, the other species (Sanderling, Ringed Plover, Knot, Dunlin) were breeding in more or less usual numbers, but the fate of young (with little fledged ones observed) remained uncertain.
The sizes of Arctic Tern colonies censused on islands in the fjord were generally of the same order when compared with previous surveys.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| With only 211 winternests recorded (1500 ha), there was evidence that lemming population was again in a low phase, a situation also corroborated by the poor output of the trapping surveys. Lemming densities were estimated being of the order of one animal per 10 ha.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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