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RESPONDENT
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Vadim Ryabitsev
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SITE NAME
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Yaibari River, Yamal, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (343)-2-605-605/(343)-2-608-256 // riabits@etel.ru // Schorsa St., 30-32, Ekaterinburg, 620142, 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: |
| Spring started as normal but was interrupted by strong storm on 11-12 June. For waders, this was just before or at the start of breeding (Dunlin) thus causing their departure to more favourable areas. Only single Grey Plovers remained. After this cold period, ice break-up on the rivers occurred by 24 June, and snow had mainly disappeared (80% of snow-free area) by 25 June. Therefore spring was considered to be very late. However waders restarted nesting.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
24.06
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average
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Breeding conditions:
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| Arctic Foxes were few but did breed. Breeding skua numbers were high. Snowy Owls and Rough-legged Buzzards also started breeding but their nesting density was not very large. Breeding populations were close to normal, but Curlew Sandpipers were completely absent, Little Stint were unusually few, and the number of Grey Plover was the lowest observed in six years. In the middle of summer nomad Arctic Foxes appeared which, together with skuas and other predators, destroyed many nests just before hatching. As a result only early nesting species bred successfully. Thus 77% of 70 Dunlin nests were successful, while only 27% of 11 Grey Plover nests remained undamaged. Undoubtedly there were great losses of chicks of all species. Local reports stated that breeding conditions for birds differed rather noticeably at the northern Yamal due to the variable distribution of rodents.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemming numbers in spring were average. Late in spring there was partial mortality of lemmings. Other animals were buried in dens and so were not available for predators.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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