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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): |
| // // Eniseiski Bulevar, 11-2-53, Moscow, 109439, 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: |
| Snow melted fast at the beginning of June but a drop in temperature later delayed melting as well as wader migration and breeding (average hatching date was 20 July). Tundra was 50% snow-free on 21 June, the same day that river ice broke up. Summer was dry and warm (with several periods when temperatures reached as high as 20ø-25øC).
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
21.06
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
21.06
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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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Breeding conditions:
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| Arctic Foxes were observed regularly, and one den was found. Snowy Owls, Rough-legged Buzzards and especially Pomarine Skuas bred numerously and successfully. Waders bred at relatively low densities (20 pairs/km2), but their success was high (chicks hatched in 81% of seven wader species, n = 131) except Curlew Sandpiper in which 63% of clutches failed (n = 24). Successful breeding was also recorded in Brent Geese. At the same time, abundance of nomad skuas late in July and in early August suggests that total breeding success of waders was no more than average. Dotterels, commonly breeding in 1993, were absent.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Both lemming species had peak numbers: their abundance in June was 25 - 28 ind./100 trap-days in interstream areas, in July it averaged at 15 ind./100 trap-days in interstream areas and polygonal tundra bogs. Although lemmings bred, their numbers in August remained constant due to predation by large flocks of Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas which appeared late in July following the arriving herds of Beluga Delphinapterus leucas.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Lemmus sibiricus | abundant |
| Dicrostonyx torquatus | abundant |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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