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RESPONDENT
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Sergei Khomenko
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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): |
| (06142)6-73-05/(06142)6-73-05 // // |
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PROJECT DETAILS
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Project name:
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Biological monitoring at W.Barents station |
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey:
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Team
size:
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17.06 |
24.07 |
3 |
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WEATHER CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Spring was early, but prolonged. By the moment when the field season started on 18 June, ice on the Meduza river already broke and the snow cover remained on 70% of tundra. The heavy snowstorm took place on 19 June and caused desertion of first incomplete Pacific Golden-Plover clutches. The summer was cold: over a 40 day period only 5-6 days were clear with temperatures of about +10^C, last frost was on 2 July. Egg hatching in most waders (12-18 July) took place during a period of cold (+1-5^C) and foggy weather. |
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
19-20 June |
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| Date of ice-break
on rivers: |
<17 June |
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| Date of final loss
of snow: |
25-27 June |
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BIOTIC CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average |
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Breeding conditions:
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The scarcity of lemmings highly increased the Arctic Fox predation pressure on waders. The foxes were noted regularly, up to 4 individuals at a time, however, no active dens were found. No Snowy Owls were observed. The number of Long-tailed Skuas, Pomarine Skuas and Rough-legged Buzzards breeding in the field station area was much lower than in good years; and the outcome of their nesting was in most cases negative.
Brant Geese nests were only found on the Olenii and North-Eastern Islands in Herring Gull colonies. Due to the prolonged spring and cold summer the number of nesting Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints was very low. During the period between the onset of spring and autumn migration density of these species did not exceed 2.6 and 2.4 pairs or males/sq.km. respectively. At the same time nesting of only one Little Stint pair was confirmed while all local Curlew Sandpipers disappeared by 10 July. A similar situation was noted with the Ruddy Turnstone, Ringed Plover and Dunlin (0.9-1.3 pairs/km2) and this is considering that 50-90% of all individuals either did not breed at all or lost their clutches early. The Pacific Golden-Plover density did not differ from usual (5.5-6.3 pairs/km2). Grey Plovers and Dotterel did not nest. A distractively behaving Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos was noted on the Big Olenii island on 24 July. The probability of a clutch surviving till hatching was 35% (n=11) in Pacific Golden-Plovers, 54% (n=3) in Ringed Plovers. Overall by 20 July when hatching was probably over the 66 Pacific Golden-Plover pairs nesting in the study area probably lost half of their broods. A potential link between researchers' activities and Arctic Fox predation on clutches could not be excluded. |
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Siberian Lemming population clearly decreased compared to previous year: only during peak of snowmelt in the last third of June 10-15 individuals could be seen daily. In July very few lemmings were seen of which only one was a young individual.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Lemmus sibiricus | rare |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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