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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): |
| 31 255 564 660/31 255 564 644 // Ingrid.Tulp@wur.nl // Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research (RIVO) P.O. Box 68, 1970 AB IJmuiden, The Netherlands
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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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19.06
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21.07
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4
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Spring in 1996 was rather late according to local people. The ice in the Medusa river broke on 25 June - five days later than in 1994. June was dry, the first three weeks of July were characterised by a lot of precipitation. The peak hatching period of wader chicks (12-16 July) was dominated by cold, windy weather with lots of fog. The snow cover reached the 50% limit on June 25. Immediately after the snow melt arthropods became active. Spiders and springtails dominated in late June. Diptera, the most abundant arthropods, showed their peak in the first two weeks of July. Apart from a seasonal pattern, arthropod abundance showed a very strong relation with temperature.
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
25.06
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
25.06
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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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Lemming abundance allowed Rough-legged Buzzard, Snowy Owl and skuas (Long-tailed and Pomorine) to breed successfully. All these predators were predominantly feeding on lemmings and seemed to have no difficulty in finding enough lemmings for their offspring. Arctic foxes were never observed. Brent Geese were breeding in congregations close to Snowy Owl and in lesser numbers in the vicinity of Rough-legged Buzzards nests.
Total estimated nest density of breeding waders was 49 nests/sq.km. Since we are convinced that we did not find all nests of especially Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper this figure should be regarded as an absolute minimum. The most abundant species were Little Stint (total 74 nests) and Curlew sandpipers (total 71 nests). Little Stints laid their clutches in the wet marshy areas close to streams, while Curlew Sandpipers bred higher on the slopes in the drier parts. Pacific Golden Plovers had their nests on the higher, drier parts (total 23 nests). Remarkable was the complete absence of Dotterel, a species reported as common breeding bird in other years in this area. Other waders breeding in the area were Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Knot, Dunlin and Ruff.
Breeding succes of most breeding waders was very high. The probability of surviving a mean incubation period of 21 days was 86% on average. Median hatching dates were 19 July for Pacific Golden Plover, 17/18 July for Little Stint and 13/14 July for Curlew Sandpipers.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Although 1996 was supposed to be an intermediate year in the three year lemming cycle, Collared Lemmings were relatively abundant: up to 40 animals could be met during a day by one person.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
The studies undertaken included: monitoring of breeding bird densities in a defined area, recording breeding succes of waders, recording habitat preferences by means of tundra type mapping, recording seasonal abundance of arthropod fauna, trapping and ringing of adult waders, studying nest incubation schedules in Little Stints, recording body mass dynamics in Little Stints and Curlew Sandpipers and measuring energy expenditure of incubating Little Stints using the doubly-labelled water method.
An area of 4 sq.km was searched for wader nests. A bigger area measuring 30 sq.km was searched for Snowy Owl, Rough-legged Buzzard and Brent Goose nests.
In total 140 adult birds and 189 chicks were trapped and ringed.
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