Waders of Agricultural Areas of Ivanovo Oblast in the Crisis of Agricultural Production

Abstract

Abstract—The agricultural landscape of Ivanovo oblast is now a sophisticated mosaic of a variety of types of lands in use and of abandoned lands at different stages of succession. This is mainly determined by the fauna, structure, and population dynamics of such open-field birds as waders. This paper reflects the correlation of the fauna and population of the waders of agricultural lands in Ivanovo oblast with such key factors in farming ecosystems as the stages of succession, haymaking, pasturage, and agricultural burning of vegetation. Twenty wader species have been noted on the agricultural areas of Ivanovo oblast, 13 of which are breeding, six species of which are typical inhabitants of overgrown agriculture lands (the lapwing, curlew, black-tailed Godwit, common redshank, common snipe, and great snipe). The moisture content of soil in a specific year is the determining factor for the common snipe to nest on agricultural lands; the species demonstrates no pronounced trends of population density related to succession processes, up to the development of shrub-arborous vegetation. The other species of waders actively populate unused, fallow lands at intermediate stages of the demutational succession, increasing their abundance just at the first stages and avoiding sites overgrown with shrub-arborous vegetation. The lapwing also inhabits lands in use, while other wader species avoid nesting on actively exploited agricultural lands. The common redshank and the great snipe somewhat avoid lands with haymaking sites. By means of correlation analysis, a positive correlation was tracked of the wader fauna and population on nonannual (irregular) spring burns of vegetation, which hold down succession at stages favorable for waders.