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RESPONDENT
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Vladimir Kalyakin
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SITE NAME
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Gusinaya Zemlya, north-east, Novaya Zemlya, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (095)479-74-13 // // Shirokaya St., 9-1-260, Moscow, 129282, 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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19.06
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5.09
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Spring was late, cold, with slow melt of accumulated in large amount snow: only seaside tundra had wide snow-free patches on 19 June. Summer was short, cold, and extremely rainy with frequent storms; snowfalls were absent only between 10 July - 23 August. However, typical for Novaya Zemlya hurricanes were not recorded.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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An area of 120 sq. km was inhabited by a single breeding pair Arctic Foxes with 4 pups and 2-3 non-breeding foxes. Among skuas one pair of Great Skuas was found nesting, other species were regularly met wandering thoughout the summer. Snowy Owls were represented by a small number of non-breeders (2-3 birds/50 sq.km). Rough-legged Buzzards inhabited at low density submountain belt, where possibly nested. Numbers of Glaucous Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls were at their usial level.
Among waders nesting was recorded in Turnstones, Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Purple Sandpipers, Little Stints and Red Phalaropes (in an order of decreasing abundance). Yet in mid August late not-flying broods of Ringed Plovers, Purple Sandpipers and Red Phalaropes were met. Barnacle Goose numbers were orders of magnitude lower than in 1995, still predation pressure was heavy: 80% of controlled nests of were depredated, primarily by Arctic Foxes. Reproduction of waders was, however, successful. Predominantly nests and broods of Turnstone and Ringed Plover on open ridges were destroyed (numbers decreased an order of magnitude by mid July), while population of lowlands with grass-cover almost did not change till late July.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemming numbers were low: only 3 Siberian and 1 Collared Lemming were met during study period.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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