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RESPONDENT
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Nadezhda Boyko
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SITE NAME
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Kandalaksha Bay, Karelsky coast, White Sea, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| // boyko27@com.mels.ru // Lineinaya St., 35, Kandalaksha, Murmanskaya oblast, 184040, Russia
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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: |
| As in the previous year frequent rains were responsible for high levels of soil water. Precipitation occurred on 56.7% of days in June, 51.6% in July, 58.1% in August, and 46.7% in September.
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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: |
high
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Rodent dynamics:
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Small rodents were censused in late May (300 trap-nights) and in September (400 trap-nights). Numbers of insectivores declined dramatically during the under-snow period 2006/2007, and they were not captured in snap-traps. Catching with cylinders yielded low abundance of 1.3 animals per 10 days. One Pygmy Shrew captured in August and one Common Shrew captured in September corresponded to 5% of the total number of small mammals captured in these months. Voles over-wintered successfully, and were numerous during the whole year. Voles of 4 species amounted to 94.9% of all captured animals, with relative abundance of 1.7 and 2.2 animals per 100 trap-nights in spring and autumn, respectively. Catching with cylinders yielded an abundance of 13.3 animals per 10 days in May, 10.0 in July, 15.0 in August and 22.5 in September. The Grey-sided Vole was the most common species (54.1%), and the Tundra Vole was the second in abundance (32.4%). Wood Lemmings were recorded in catches from July, when they represented 28.8% of all captured animals.
Ermines were recorded in September in the area of trapping. Avian rodent-specialists were not observed.
Microtus spp. voles were abundant for the second year in a row on both coasts of the Kandalaksha Bay, including in human settlements. They damaged not only potatoes and other vegetables on the fields, but also vegetables in storage facilities. Voles, including animals running on snow surface, were frequently recorded in Kandalaksha town until end of the year. The local population of Common Voles Microtus (arvalis) rossiaemeridionalis still existed in the area of Lower Kandalaksha (species identification made by F.N. Golenischev from Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences): 17 animals were captured in 2007.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Microtus oeconomus | |
| Clethrionomys rufocannus | |
| Myopus schisticolor | |
| Sorex araneus | |
| Sorex minutus | |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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