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RESPONDENT
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Diana Solovieva
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SITE NAME
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Sagastyr Island, northern Lena River Delta, Yakutia, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| 812 2306712/812 2306712(fax) // diana_solovyova@mail.ru // Obrucheva 38, Pevek, Chukotsky Okrug, 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: |
| The spring was much colder than in normal years with the average temperature of the first half of June close to 0^C. The snow cover on the tundra remained till 25-28 June, channels opened up at average time - 20 June, but the water level was low. Air temperatures in the summer were as usual.
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| Season temperature: |
average
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
20.06
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
28.06
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average
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Breeding conditions:
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No denning by Arctic Foxes was noted, although the animals themselves were numerous. Rough-legged Buzzards, Snowy Owls and Peregrine Falcons did not nest. Pomarine Skuas locally nested only at the sites with medium lemming population levels, their density was 0.14 pair/km2. Arctic Skuas had the same density but nested throughout the surveyed area.
Commonly breeding wader species included the Grey Plover (1.1 pair/km2), Ruddy Turnstone (1.5 pair/km2), Curlew Sandpiper (3.1 male/km2), Little Stint (16.2 nest/km2), and Red Phalarope (29.6 pair/km2). In the Grey Plover 37.5% of found nests produced chicks. An unusual occurrence for the Lena delta were large flocks of Pectoral Sandpipers that appeared in July and were more abundant than all the other species.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| The Siberian Lemming numbers were generally low, reaching medium or medium-high levels at some sites: during the snowmelt period up to 3 animals were seen at a time. Dead lemmings were found after snow was gone and their numbers appeared to be dropping throughout the summer.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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