Transactions
of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station

Language of the article: Russian Cite: Busel, V. A. (2016). Changes in a community of breeding birds of the Lower Dnieper floodplain under anthropogenic factors. Branta: Transactions of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station, 19, 53-72 Keywords: breeding birds, bird community, floodplain forest, wet and dry meadows, sandy ridges, rocks, floodplain of the Lower Dnieper, Kakhovske Reservoir, natural system Views: 696 Branta copyright

Branta Issues > Issue №19 (2016)

Branta: Transactions of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station, 53-72

Changes in a community of breeding birds of the Lower Dnieper floodplain under anthropogenic factors

V. A. Busel

Different natural complexes used by birds in the floodplain of the Lower Dnieper were distinguished into 6 main types: tree-shrub, wetland, meadow complexes, sand spits and ridges, clay slopes and precipices, and also rocky outcrops. Since the 19th century, in the course of action of anthropogenic and natural factors, 15 species stopped breeding in the floodplain of the Lower Dnieper, and 17 new bird species appeared. Breeding of the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra), Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), Merganser (Mergus albellus), Stock Dove (Columba oenas), Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus), and Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris) should be considered as relic bird populations cut off from their main range. Processes of intensive economical activity entailed degradation of a meadow natural complex in the late 1940s - middle of 1950s and contributed to invasion of birds belonging to a steppe type of habitats, not typical to the Lower Dnieper floodplain. These species were Crested Lark (Galerida cristata), Short-toed Lark (Calandrella cinerea), Skylark (Alauda arvensis), and Tawny Pipit (Anthus campestris), which had been breeding there until the area was flooded in 1956. The most essential factors influenced on changes in avifauna in the Lower Dnieper floodplain were water engineering, dyke building on small rivers, development of a coastal part of the Dnieper Delta and increase of recreational pressure in the spring-summer season.

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