The avifauna of the Zigoneni dam basin (Argeş county, Romania), observed in 2013

Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 62 (1): 99–124 (2019) doi: 10.3897/travaux.62.e38594 RESEARCH ARTICLE The avifauna of the Zigoneni dam basin (Argeş county, Romania), observed in 2013 Adrian Mestecăneanu1 1 Argeş County Museum, Armand Călinescu, 44, 110047, Piteşti, Argeş, Romania Corresponding author: Adrian Mestecăneanu () Received 11 January 2019 | Accepted 24 April 2019 | Published 31 July 2019 Citation: Mestecăneanu A (2019) The avifauna from the Zigoneni dam basin (Argeş county, Romania), observed in 2013. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 62(1): 99–124. https://doi.org/10.3897/ travaux.62.e38594 Abstract Some aspects regarding the breeding of the birds from Zigoneni Basin that belongs to the protected area ROSPA0062 the Dam Basins of the Argeş River are presented in this paper. 37 species were observed here, between May and July 2013, through the point counts method, within a radius of 100 m. On one side Acrocephalus palustris, A. scirpaceus, A. arundinaceus, Alcedo atthis, Fulica atra, Oriolus oriolus and Parus major were the most frequent species and on the other side A. palustris and Fulica atra were the most abundant. At the level of the habitat mosaic of the water shore, A. palustris (0.88 p./ha), A. scirpaceus and F. atra (each with 0.32 p./ha) and A. schoenobaenus, A. arundinaceus, Phylloscopus collybita and Pica pica (each with 0.24 p./ha) had the highest estimated densities. Additionally, 14 species dependent on wetlands were observed through the itinerary method. Other considerations about the ecological indices and the efficiency of the methods were also made. Keywords birds, dam reservoir, protected area, density, point counts, itinerary method. Introduction In Romania, the birds from the artificial wetlands have become the subject of a relatively recent research, dealing with the decline in number of some species, currently protected, and the adaptation of others to the anthropogenic conditions. Within this context, the dam basins are a special subject (Cărăuşu 1968, Munteanu and Mătieş 1983, Weber 1994, Munteanu 2000, Feneru 2002, Gache 2002, Mitruly 2002, Copyright Mestecăneanu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 100 Mestecăneanu Rang 2002, Mestecăneanu 2008), providing breeding places for many bird species, as well as food and shelter throughout the year or at least seasonally. The most valuable places from this point of view have been declared protected areas (Papp and Fântână 2008), but because they are not natural, the protection of birds and habitats developed here must be harmonized with their primary purposes of production of electricity, mitigation of floods, and water supplying of the neighbourhood economic and social objectives. The reservoirs from the Argeş River, between Zigoneni and Goleşti, are a such example (cf. http://www.baraje.ro), in this context the research of their ornithofauna starting immediately after their commissioning, especially on the dynamics and breeding of the species (Mătieş 1969, Gava 1997, Munteanu et al. 1989, Gava et al. 2007, Conete 2011, Conete et al. 2012, Mestecăneanu et al. 2010, Mestecăneanu and Gava 2016). This study is the first paper dedicated to the avifauna of Zigoneni reservoir. It proposes a different approach of the fauna of the breeding birds from the protected area. Material and method The Zigoneni dam reservoir was built on the Argeş River in 1973, south of Curtea de Argeş, near the village of Zigoneni, hence the name. It is followed, downstream, by Vâlcele, Budeasa, Bascov, Piteşti and Goleşti dam basins. According to the Government Decision no. 1284/2007 (https://lege5.ro/Gratuit/geydknbwgi/), they form together the special protection area for avifauna, an integral part of the European ecological network Natura 2000, ROSPA0062 The Dam Basins of the Argeş River – in Romanian, „Lacurile de acumulare de pe Argeş” (Fig. 1). Its functional features are: type – gravity dam/earth; kind of sealing – uphill embankment, concrete; height – 29 m; length – 2,850 m; volume – 13.3×106 m3; area – 165 ha; length of the lake – 3 km; purpose – electricity, water supply; area of catchment – 625 km2; discharge flow – 840 m3/s; spill type – overflowing with the sluices (http://www.baraje.ro/rrmb/rrmb_idx.htm). It reaches 379 m a.s.l. (cf. Google Earth), 350–400 m lower than the peaks from vicinity of the Cotmeana Plateau, in the West, and of the Argeş Hills, in the East. The hills that flank it are covered with beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.), oak (Quercus robur L.) and sessile oak forests (Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl., as well as fruit orchards and pastures. Particularly, corn and fodder plants grow in the nearby meadow. On the right bank, there are remnants of an old park, formed of alder (Alnus spp.), willow (Salix spp.) and poplar trees (Populus spp.), which, due to the silting process, increasingly began to claim territories to the lake end, on the alluvial beds, where the reed and bulrush were installed first. Also, a small pine (Pinus spp.) plantation lays at the tail of the basin. The palustral vegetation is poor, noticeable being the association Potamo – Cerato- The avifauna of the Zigoneni dam basin 101 Figure 1. The map of the ROSPA0062, marked with red contour, and the position of the Zigoneni Reservoir, marked with black arrow (by http://natura2000.eea.europa.eu/Natura2000/SDF. aspx?site=ROSPA0062, modified). phylletum submersi Pop 1962, found at depths of 60–120 cm, where Ceratophyllum submersum is the dominant and characteristic species (Stancu 2014). The fish fauna gathers elements from the interference between Thymallus thymallus Linneus, 1758 and Barbus meridionalis petenyi Heckel, 1852 area and Chondrostoma nasus (Linneus, 1758) area, next to which Phoxinus phoxinus (Linneus 1758), Noemacheilus barbatulus (Linneus, 1758), Cottus gobio Linneus, 1758, Leuciscus cephalus (Linneus, 1758), Barbus barbus (Linneus, 1758) etc. live, too (Bănărescu 1964). Since 2011, Cyprinus carpio Linneus, 1758 and Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844), species introduced in the juvenile stage, added to them (http://apsvidraru.ro/populare.html). The climate of the area is temperate continental with hilly influences. The average air temperature is 7°C (-2.5 °C in January and 19°C in July), 1–3°C lower than the average annual water temperature of Argeş River. The annual average of the precipitations reaches 750 mm/year (Barco and Nedelcu 1974). The study was conducted through the project “Sistemul naţional de gestiune și monitorizare a speciilor de păsări din România în baza articolului 12 din Directiva Păsări” [National system for the management and monitoring of bird species in Romania based (...truncated)