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RESPONDENT
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Mikhail Soloviev
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SITE NAME
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Verkhnyaya Taimyra River mouth, central Taimyr Peninsula, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (495)9394424 // mikhail-soloviev@yandex.ru // Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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Wader Monitoring on Taimyr
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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14.06
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7.08
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4
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Snow accumulation was apparently very high during the winter, which resulted in a delayed snowmelt. Snow had melted on 50% of the flat surface by 21 June. This was the latest date on record since the first visit to the study area in 2004. Snow completely disappeared on 27 June. The water table was highest during the spring flood. Mean daily air temperatures in the second half of June were 0.75-0.79°C higher in 2007 than in 2004 and 2006, but 5.34 C lower than in the extremely early and hot season 2005. Mean monthly air temperature was +10.1°C in July 2007 which was 0.48-1.85°C lower than in other years. There was a period of adverse weather from 11-16 July, with air temperatures dropping to freezing on some days. Snow blanketed the ground for several hours on 11 July, when there was heavy precipitation and there was a strong wind on 3 days in a row. The total amount and frequency of precipitation increased from 2004 through 2007. Precipitation was record high in the second half of June and in July in 2007.
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
21.06
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
19-23.06
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
27.06
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
high
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Breeding conditions:
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Arctic Foxes bred at a density of 4 dens per 85 km2, but adult animals were rarely seen in the study area. An Ermine or Least Weasel was recorded on 15 July, and Ermine on 18 July.
Snowy Owls and Rough-legged Buzzards were rare. Successful breeders in both species occurred at a density 0.07 nests/km2. The Pomarine, Arctic and Long-tailed skuas bred at densities of 1.86, 0.04, and 0.36 nests/km2 respectively, and chicks hatched in all species. A single pair of Peregrine Falcons nested in the study area in 2005-2007.
Rock Ptarmigans bred at a typical low desnity for the area. A nest of Willow Grouse was found on a small island with willow stands in a river channel. This is the northernmost breeding record for this species.
Nest success of birds was very high in 2007. In particular, waders demonstrated apparent nest success of 85.2±2.6% (n=189), which was record high for the period of wader studies on Taimyr since 1990. This can be compared with the second highest value of 81.7% observed in 1999 in south-eastern Taimyr. Hatching success of passerines was 95.1±2.4% (n=82), and of non-passerines, excluding waders was 82.4±2.8% (n=182). Snowfall on 11 July resulted in the death of freshly hatched wader chicks, and in chicks of various age in some nests of passerines. However, the overall impact of this weather was not large, due to the small fraction of nests affected. Predation pressure by Pomarine Skuas was low, at least up to the time of their hatching.
At least 9000 Reindeers passed through the study area on 24 July. A small fraction of nests was still active at this time, but very few nests were trampled. The impact of trampling on chicks was difficult to evaluate.
Generally, nest survival was very high, but survival of chicks could have been heavily affected by predation of common Pomarine Skuas when they were feeding chicks.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| In total 799 lemmings were recorded by 4 observers during the period of field studies. This was the highest abundance since the start of the wader monitoring project in 1994 followed the record low abundance in 2006. Lemming abundance was high in June but declined dramatically in July. Siberian Lemmings prevailed among identified animals (97.6%).
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Lemmus sibiricus | abundant |
| Dicrostonyx torquatus | rare |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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