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RESPONDENT
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Mikhail Stishov
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SITE NAME
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Wrangel Island, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (095)465-47-93 // stishov@wrangel.msk.ru // Zapovednik "Ostrov Vrangelya", Ushakovskoie, Shmidtovski rayon, Chukotski okrug, 686870, 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: |
| Summer was unusually cold. Snow started to melt as usual in early June, with ice breaking-up on the main rivers by 20 June. Later, however, temperatures decreased, remaining slightly above freezing for the rest of the summer. Unusually, there were frequent snowfalls, rain and fog. As there had been heavy snow the preceding winter, and the summer was cold, snow and ice melt was late and incomplete, causing late floods of melt-water, exacerbated by high precipitation.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
20.06
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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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| Numbers of breeding Arctic Foxes were much the same as in 1993. Snowy Owls and Pomarine Skuas bred in large numbers, but most of the latter left the area after 15 July. Common wader species (Grey Plover, Turnstone, Knot and Dunlin) started to breed at the same time and in the same densities as in 1993. In the second half of June, numbers of breeding birds decreased due to cold, and no late broods were recorded because of increased predation pressure.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Numbers of both lemming species (especially Siberian Lemming) were very high during snow-melt, but the animals from late-spring generation were almost absent. As the vegetation cover was heavily damaged (several hectares of willows were completely eaten) the numbers of lemmings under snow were exceptionally large. In June their population declined quite rapidly (especially Collared Lemming), and in August they were several times less abundant than in June. In August, young Siberian Lemmings were extremely rare, unlike Collared Lemmings.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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