The Northern and Western Black Sea Region &Hyphen; the Wadden Sea
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Kubeet al.: Thenorthern and western Black Sea region - the WaddenSea of the MediterraneanFlyway The northern and western Black Sea region- the Wadden Sea of the Mediterranean Flyway for wader populations J. Kube,A.I. Korzyukov,D.N. Nankinov, OA G Miinster & P. Weber Kube,J., Korzyukov, A.I., Nankinov,D.N., OAG M'tinster& Weber,P. 1998. The northernand western BlackSea region - the WaddenSea of the Mediterraneanflyway for wader populations.International Wader Studies 10: 379-393. Thisreview summarises some of the availableinformation, up to 1993,about wader populationsusing the Mediterraneanflyway with specialreferences to the northernand westernBlack Sea region, which havenot been included in previousreviews. The paperpresents data on the numberand distribution of coastalbreeding waders in south-eastEurope and the patternof theirmigration and winter distribution.For numerous migrant species their population size and migrationhabits are discussed. Furtherdata on the numericalstatus of othermigrants at the northernand westernBlack Sea coast wereadded to demonstratethe importantrole of thisregion as the main stagingarea of the Mediterraneanflyway. Ringingresults demonstrate the complicatedoverlaps between various flyway systemsaround the BlackSea. Datafor othermigrants, although rather incomplete, are included. The ecologicaldifferences of the Mediterraneanflyway compared with otherflyways of thewestern Palaearcticare discussed.The dramaticrate of wetlandlosses in the Mediterraneanregion has greatly reducedthe numberof stop-oversites and winteringareas available for wadersand wildfowl. Thereis a clearneed for reviewsof the currentstate of knowledge,because only followingthis can focused researchand conservationprogrammes be planned. J.Kube, Heimgartenstr. 26, 0-1170Berlin, Germany. A.I. Korzyukov,Zoological Department, Odessa State University, Shampansky per. 2, Odessa270058, Ukraine. D.N. Nankinov,Bulgarian Academy of Science, Inst. of Zoology, Boul. Ruski 1, 1000Sofia, Bulgaria. OAGMiinster, Coermiihle 181, W-4400 Miinster, Germany. P. Weber,Strada Cogalniceanu, Medias, Romania. Introduction and Africa,including all stop-oversites in between (Smit & Piersma 1989;Summers et al. 1987). Waders The MediterraneanFlyway, part of the wader usingthe MediterraneanFlyway breed in the arctic flyway for the westernPalaearctic, comprises the and subarcticregion of northernEurope and annualmigration route of wader and wildfowl Siberia,in the temperateregion and alsoalong the populationsbetween their breeding quarters and Black and Mediterranean Seas. the winteringgrounds in the MediterraneanBasin 379 International Wader Studies 10: 379-393 A dramatic rate of wetland loss in the winteringgrounds, and to identifythe maingaps in Mediterraneanregion has greatly reduced the our presentknowledge. numberof stop-oversites and winteringareas available for waders and wildfowl. Van Vessem et al. (1992)showed an overalldecline of 54%during The presentlevel of knowledge the last20 yearsfor the mostimportant waterfowl, Thepresent level of knowledgeabout population calculated for the Mediterranean as a whole. The sizesand migrationpatterns of the Mediterranean MediterraneanFlyway alsohas the highest Flywayis far lesscomplete than that of theEast percentageof endangeredspecies of all the AtlanticFlyway. The reviewby Smit(1986) was the Palaearcticmigration systems, indicating that firstattempt to estimatethe size of winteringwader flywayconservation plans should be prepared populationsin theMediterranean. Further data on immediately.There is a clearneed for reviewsof the winterwader distributions were given by Van the currentstate of knowledge,because only Dijk et al. (1986)and Summerset al. (1987). Details followingthis we canstart to plan researchand of the sizeof breedingpopulations have been conservationprogrammes (Davidson et al. 1998). summarisedby Tucker& Heath (1992)and Hagemeijer& Blair (1997). The r61eand the In recentyears, political changes in EasternEurope importanceof stop-oversites has never been reviewed. havelead to betteropportunities for internationally co-ordinatedfield work and an exchangeof data and literaturebetween East and WestEurope. SinceSinit's review (1986) a lot of researchprojects Hopefully,this co-operation will alsoencourage haveyielded new information: conservation initiatives for wetlands in south-east ß dataon thenumber of mediterraneanbreeding Europe. Therefore,our reviewwill concentrateon waders(e.g. Tinarelli & Baccetti1989; Nankinov theBlack Sea region and its rolein the 1989;Korzyukov et al. 1991;Siochin et al. 1988); ß results of winter censuses in the Mediterranean MediterraneanFlyway system. For migrating waders we will define their numerical status at VanDijk et al. 1986;Dijksen & Blomert1989; Baccetti importantresting sites of thenorthern and western et al. 1992); BlackSea region and discusstheir directionsof ß studieson the springmigration system migration. For the bestknown migrants we also (Meininger1990; Van der Have et al. 1988); give detailsof their winter distributionand for ß studieson springand autumnmigration in the Mediterraneancoastal breeders we presentdata on northernand western Black Sea region (e.g. Uhlig 1984,1989, 1991;Brehme et al. 1992); theirbreeding population size. In thisway we hope to showhow thepieces of theMediterranean ß analysisof ringingresults (e.g. Viksne & Mihelson 1985;Gromadzka 1989;Mullie et al. 1989). Flywaypuzzle fit togetherbetween breeding and Sivash Danube Crimea Black Sea C) " '....StudyArea: MediterraneanSea Figure1. Geographiccoverage of thosecoastal breeding wader populations in southernEurope which use the Mediter-ranean flyway. Areas with detailed information from to the mid 1980s and which are included in this review are shaded. 38O Kubeet al.: The northernand westernBlack Sea region- theWadden Sea of the MediterraneanFlyway The amountof availabledata differsconsiderably smallpart of theH. o.longipes population using the betweenspecies. The best-known waders are the MediterraneanFlyway: most of thembreed inland. Mediterraneancoastal breeding species, Redshank The few existingringing recoveries suggest a Tringatotanus and Black-tailedGodwit Limosa limosa breedingrange from the upper Volga River onwards astemperate breeders, which use the northernand (V'flcsne& Mihelson1985). The populationsize can westernBlack Sea region for their postnuptial be estimatedat between6,000 - 7,000birds (Table 1, moult. Dunlin Calidrisalpina and Ruff Philornachus Figure2). Thereis closecorrespondence between pugnaxare the most numerous migrants, breeding in the estimateof the winteringpopulation in the arctic and subarctic Siberia. Mediterraneanand the number of birdson spring passageon the BlackSea coast (Tables 2 and 5, The northern and western Black Sea Figures3 and 4). regionas a habitat for migrating Oystercatchersleave their wintering grounds in waders Tunisiain late March. Whenthey arrive at the Thenorthern and westernBlack Sea region is oneof the mostimportant staging areas along the MediterraneanFlyway. More than onemillion wadersstopover during spring and autumneach year. Of these,more than half usethe huge lagoon systemsof theCrimean Peninsula. The othersare to be found at various sites on the western Black Sea coast. The salinityof the BlackSea varies between 15-25 partsper thousand.Because of its smallsize tides do not occur in the Black Sea. Since there are no tidal mudflats,stop-over habitats for wader migrantsare coastal lakes, salines, brackish lagoons and estuaries.The extentof shallowwaters changes Figure2. Breedingdistribution of Oystercatchers periodically.These changes are effected mostly by Haematopusostralegus in south-eastEurope (total number changesin wind direction,but alsoby rainfalland of pairs300-450). evaporation.Coastal shallow water areas of this typeare called wind-tidal flats. Figure3 (right).Autumn migrationand winter Thesewind-tidal flats mainly harbourtypical distribution of marineinvertebrates. Their numberand species OystercatchersHaematopus compositiondepend on the salinity,as does the ostralegusIongipes between meanbody size of the polychaetes,molluscs and eastern Mediterranean crustaceans(Remane & Schlieper1958). (Tunisia:5,000, Egypt: 500- 1,000)and the PersianGulf A censusat the mostimportant resting sites along (10,000-15,000). the BlackSea coast represents nearly the total current stock of waders. The birds can be counted throughoutthe wholeday ratherthan at only short periodsof suitabletidal statein largeintertidal areas.The accuracyof countswill, however,be > 5000 affectedby flockmovements in betweenlarge lagoonsystems, induced by changesin wind 100 - 500 directionor speed. ß < 100 Populationsize, winter distribution and timing of moult and migration of Mediterranean coastalbreeding waders OystercatcherHaematopus ostralegus Figure4. Distributionof OystercatchersHaematopus Oystercatchersbreeding in south-eastEurope ostralegusIongipes during spring migration in lateMarchJ belongto thesubspecies H. o. longipes.Italian earlyApril in south-eastEurope. breedersare possibly part of thenominate race H. o.ostralegus (Glutz von Blotzheim1976; Danubemouth, they seem to stopfor only a few P.Meininger pers. comm.). Both subspecies of days. The shorelineof the Danubemouth is Oystercatchersbreed inland in Belorussia(Nikiforov probablythe most important stop-over site for East 1998). The numberof coastalbreeding EuropeanOystercatchers between their breeding Oystercatchersin the Ukraine representsonly a andwintering quarters. Large concentrations