Abstract
Long-term data reflecting the abundance and species composition of large colonies of gulls (more than five nests, distance between the nests less than 50 m) on Aiopechan Island, West Chukotka, were compared. A comparative analysis of the data published in 1970–1984 and our data for 1989, 2000–2013 revealed significant changes in the composition and abundance of colonies over the 40-year period with simultaneous shift in the spring phonological characteristics to earlier dates. Growth in the number of the Vega gull (Larus vegae) and decrease in the number of Sabine’s gull (Xema sabini) were revealed. The number of glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) was stable. A change of the dominant species in the colonies and disappearance of some colonies of the Sabine’s gull under the influence of the expansion of the Vega gull were registered. It was found that the increase in the abundance of the Vega gull occurs not owing to the increase of long-term colonies but due to the appearance of new ones.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ACIA, Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. http://www.acia.uaf.edu
Andreev, A.V., Breeding success of the gull Rhodostetia rosea (McGill) in the Kolyma tundra and its determinative factors, in Redkie i ischezayushchie ptitsy Dal’nego Vostoka (Rare and Endangered Birds of the Far East), Vladivostok, 1985, pp. 110–131.
Bowman, T., Stehn, R.A., and Walters, G., Population size and production of geese and eiders nesting on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska in 2001. Unpubl. report available from the USFWS, Migratory Bird Management, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, Alaska, 2001.
Brazil, M., Birds of East Asia (China, Taiwan, Korea, and Russia), Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Cramp, S., Gulls nesting on buildings in Britain and Ireland, British Birds, 1971, vol. 64, no. 11, pp. 476–487.
Erwin, R.M., Galli, J., and Burger, J., Colony site dynamics and habitat use in Atlantic coast seabirds, Auk, 1981, vol. 98, pp. 550–561.
Gilchrist, H.G., Glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), in The Birds of North America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Academy of Natural Sciences and Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union, 2001, no. 573.
Gudmundsson, F., Islandic Birds XI. The glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus), Natturufraedingurinn, 1955, vol. 25, pp. 24–35.
Kondrat’ev, A.Ya., Seasonal phenomena in the life of birds of the Chaun lowland, in Ptitsy Severo-Vostoka Azii (Birds of the Northeast Asia), Vladivostok: DVNTs ANSSSR, 1979, pp. 95–105.
Kondrat’ev, A.Ya., Biologiya kulikov v tundrakh Severo-Vostoka Azii (Biology of Waders in Tundra of Northeast Asia), Moscow: Nauka, 1982.
Kondrat’ev, A.Ya. and Kondrat’eva, L.F., Growth and development of Sabine’s gull, Ornitologiya, 1984, no. 19, pp. 81–88.
Kondrat’ev, A.Ya. and Kondrat’eva, L.F., Sravnitel’naya kharakteristika ekologii gnezdovaniya rozovoi i vilokhvostoi chaek (Comparative characteristics of breeding ecology of Ross’s and Sabine’s gulls), Ornitologiya, 1987, no. 22, pp. 35–49.
Krechmar, A.V., Andreev, A.V., and Kondrat’ev, A.Ya., Ptitsy severnykh ravnin (Birds of the Northern Plains), Leningrad: Nauka, 1991.
Larned, W., Stehn, R., and Platte, R., Waterfowl breeding population survey Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska, 2009. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Soldotna and Anchorage, Alaska. http://www.fws.gov/alaska/mbsp/mbm/waterfowl/reports.htm.
Lock, A.R., Recent increases in the breeding population of ring-billed gulls, Larus delawarensis, in Atlantic Canada, Can. Field-Natur., 1988, vol. 102, no. 4, pp. 627–633.
Noel, L.E., Jonson, S.R., and Gazey, W.J., Oilfield development and glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) distribution and abundance in central Alaskan Beafort Sea Lagoons, 1970–2001, Arctic, 2006, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 65–78.
Osa, Y. and Watanuki, Y., Status of seabirds breeding in Hokkaido, J. Yamashina Inst. Ornithol., 2002, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 107–141.
Ostapenko, V.A., Avifauna of the Chaun River delta (Western Chukotka), Trudy Instituta biologicheskikh problem Severa, Magadan, 1973, vol. 2, pp. 59–73.
Platte, R.M. and Stehn, R.A., Abundance, Distribution, and Trend of Waterbirds on Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Coast Based on 1985 to 2009 Aerial Surveys, Anchorage, Alaska: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2009.
Solov’eva, D.V., Long-term dynamics of the avifauna of the Chaun-Pucheveem River delta, Western Chukotka, and possible causes of changes in abundance of some species, Vestnik SVNTs, 2012, no. 4, pp. 57–65.
Walton, K., Gotthardt, T., and Fields, T., Sabine’s Gull Alaska Species Ranking System Summary Report, 2013. http://aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Xema_sabini_report.pdf.
Yudin, K.A. and Firsova, L.V., The herring gull, in Ptitsy SSSR. Chaikovye (Birds of the USSR. Larids), Moscow: Nauka, 1988, pp. 126–146.
Yudin, K.A. and Firsova, L.V., Charadriiformes, Part 1: Pomorniki semeistva Stercorariidae i chaiki podsemeistva Larinae (Skuas of the Family Stercorariidae and Gulls of the Subfamily Larinae), St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2002.
Yudin, K.A. and Firsova, L.V., The glaucous gull, in Ptitsy SSSR. Chaikovye (Birds of the USSR. Larids), Moscow: Nauka, 1988a, pp. 165–174.
Zelenskaya, L.A., The glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) and the Heuglin’s gull (Larus heuglini) in Western Chukotka: biotopic location of nests and formation of colonies, Zool. Zh., 2012, vol. 91, no. 7, pp. 856–868.
Zöckler, C., Kruckenberg, H., Gavrilo, M., Kondratyev, A., and Buzun, V., Status und Ökologie der Eismöwe Larus hyperboreus auf der russischen Insel Kolgujew in der Barentssee, Limicola, 2009, vol. 23, pp. 58–78.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © D.V. Solovyeva, L.A. Zelenskaya, 2015, published in Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, Vol. 94, No. 1, pp. 68–75.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Solovyeva, D.V., Zelenskaya, L.A. Changes in the species composition and number of gulls in tundra colonies in the western Chukotka over the last 40 years. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 43, 844–850 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359016080173
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359016080173