Birds of Yakutia: Fauna Diversity, Ecology, Role in Ecosystems and Human Life

Abstract

Yakutia is a large high latitude region in the northeast of the Palearctic with extreme rigid conditions for bird habitats and their breeding comparable with adjacent areas by richness and abundance of avian fauna. Yakutia occupies about 1/5 the area of Russia (Figure 1). The features of habitat and breeding for birds here connected with the predominance of sharply continental climate, natural-landscape diversity, and with the summer light regime. The region has high water and forest cover, specific heat and watery regimes of permafrost soils. The annual temperature amplitude is unique in the Northern Hemisphere-it is more than 100°C, cold winters and hot summers. Snow melt begins in May and early June, the river ice breaks in the mid-May and mid-June. The vegetation growing season lasts from May 13 to September 19. Due to the winter extreme environmental conditions,