Distribution of waterfowl of the Malozemelskaya tundra (Nenets autonomous district, Russia) among different wetland types

Abstract

Investigations were conducted between 1993 and 2005 in the Malozemelskaya tundra of Nenets autonomous district of the Arkhangelskaya region in Russia. The study site spanned the area along the Barents Sea from the saltwater Indigskaya Bay, across the saltwater Kolokolkova Bay, to the freshwater Korovinskaya Bay, and along the region’s major rivers of the Malozemelskaya tundra. We divided the region into 6 different subregions and compared physical, biological, and chemical features of the lakes and ponds among the subregions, including number of waterfowl species and individuals by life stage (e.g., breeding and post-breeding), water surface area, spatial configuration of adjacent wetlands, water depth, pH, shoreline vegetation, and ratio of open water to vegetation. We used the information to categorize wetlands into 5 types and evaluated waterfowl use among the wetland types. The study area was strongly influenced by cryogenic processes with thermokarst formations with associated lakes and ponds of various ages, assessed by successional changes in vegetation. The hilly and hilly-ridge landscape of the area between the Urdjuzskoe lake subregion is dominanted by lakes of glacial and glacial cumulative origin. We also investigated waterfowl use within the saltwater-dominated Kolokolkova Bay, the freshwater Korovinskaya Bay, and within the Indiga, Neruta, and Velt river basins that bisect the region, and lastly wetlands of the Russkij Zavorot peninsula. We observed 42 species from 25 genera using about 72% of the wetland of the region. Thermokarst lakes had the greatest species diversity with 23 species observed. Glacial lakes and cumulative wetlands hosted the fewest species with 17 and 14 species, respectively. Oxbow lakes and lagoon lakes hosted 20 and 16 waterfowl species, respectively. We counted 20 species on saltwater Kolokolkova Bay and 19 on freshwater Korovinskaya Bay. The average number of species using any one of the 5 wetland types was 23. The greatest diversity of waterfowl species was observed on Rivers Neruta (22 species) and Velt (21 species) and in Pechora River Delta (17 species). During summer, species composition in river habitats was richer than in lakes.