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RESPONDENT
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Gilles Gauthier
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SITE NAME
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Ellesmere Island, Fosheim peninsula, Canada
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| // Gilles.Gauthier@bio.ulaval.ca // Departement de biologie & Centre d'etudes nordiques, Universite de Laval, St. Foy, Quebec City, Quebec, G1K 7P4 Canada
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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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21.06
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7.08
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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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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Field work was conducted on Ellesmere Island and surrounding areas during 2 periods, 21-27 June and 1-7 August. In June, we searched for nesting geese during reconnaissance flights on the Fosheim Peninsula on Ellesmere Island, and along the coast of Axel Heiberg Island. In August, nests were revisited to determine success. Near Eastwind Lake on the Fosheim peninsula, goose exclosures were installed to evaluate the aboveground primary production and to assess the grazing impact. At this site, small-mammal snap-trapping was also conducted in both mesic and wet meadow habitats. Goose banding took place using the same technique as on Bylot Island. Finally, plant biomass was sampled inside and outside exclosures, again using the same technique as on Bylot Island.
A total of 28 Greater Snow Goose nests (15 on Ellesmere Island and 13 on Axel Heiberg Island) were found, a relatively small number but more than three times the number of nests found in 1971 in the same area by Richard Kerbes. Most of these nests were widely scattered. The peak hatching date was 16 July, which is about 3 days later than the hatching date observed in 1971, with an average clutch size of 5.04, lower than the average clutch size observed in 1971. The nesting success (proportion of nests hatching at least one egg) was 63% this year, a value similar to the long-term average on Bylot Island. Family groups were smaller and more scattered than on Bylot Island, which forced us to conduct 22 banding drives, all on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands.
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Rodent dynamics:
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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