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RESPONDENT
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Tatyana Sviridova
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SITE NAME
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Medusa Bay, Taimyr Peninsula, Russia
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| Contact
details (phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| // soloviev@soil.msu.ru // |
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PROJECT DETAILS
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey:
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Team
size:
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WEATHER CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| In the arctic tundras there was a lot of spring snow. As a consequence, snow only started to melt about 9-12 June, however, by 22 June most of the tundra was free of snow. Probably as a result of this spring snow, numbers of breeding waders were low and patchily distributed. Summer turned cooler than usual with a prevalence of northern winds and frequent fog. The weather became warm only late in July, but with plenty of rain. |
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| Date of ice-break
on rivers: |
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| Date of final loss
of snow: |
22.06 |
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BIOTIC CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average |
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Breeding conditions:
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| Most Rough-legged Buzzards abandoned clutches during incubation, although one or two pairs of Pomarine Skuas bred (one chick found). A pair of Snowy Owl and Brent Geese Branta bernicla bred only on the islands of Yenisey Bay. Arctic Foxes were observed near dens, but their numbers were low. Breeding success was high for most waders: chicks hatched from 94% of Curlew Sandpiper eggs, from 81% of Turnstone and Little Stint eggs, from 67% of Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola eggs, from 63% of Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva and Ringed Plover eggs, and from 40% of Dotterel eggs. The main cause of egg-loss was predation by Long-tailed Skuas. Chick mortality also occurred during a sharp drop in temperature around 10-15 July. On the whole, reproductive success was average. |
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Rodent dynamics:
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| The lemming population was increasing and reached an average population size in August. At the beginning of summer there were too few of these mammals to support concentrations of predators.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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