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Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve

Nature reserve in Svalbard, Norway

Field	Value
name	Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve
iucn_category	Ia
photo	Nordaustlandet (js) 2.jpg
photo_caption	Hinlopen Strait seen from Nordaustlandet
map_image	Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve locator map.svg
location	Svalbard, Norway
nearest_city	Longyearbyen
coords
area	55354 km2, of which
18663 km2 is land
36691 km2 is water
established	1 July 1973
governing_body	Norwegian Environment Agency

18663 km2 is land 36691 km2 is water

Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve () is located in the north-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. The nature reserve covers all of Nordaustlandet, Kong Karls Land, Kvitøya, Sjuøyane, Storøya, Lågøya, Wilhelm Island, Wahlbergøya and a small section of the north-east corner of Spitsbergen. The reserve is 55354 km2, of which 18663 km2 is on land and 36691 km2 is on water—making it the largest preserved area in Norway (including national parks). It includes the largest glacier in Norway, Austfonna, as well as Vestfonna and parts of Olav V Land. The reserve has been protected since 1 July 1973 and borders in the south to Søraust-Svalbard Nature Reserve.

Description

Three-quarters of Nordaustlandet is covered by glaciers, the largest being Austfonna at 7000 km2. The landscape has low, rounded hills and plains, created by glaciation during former ice ages. Most of the reserve has little or no vegetation, and the reserve belongs to the polar desert. The nature reserve is used by scientists and tourists, the latter commonly sailing eastwards along Hinlopen Strait or round Nordaustlandet. The most popular places to visit are Sjuøyane, Alkefjellet, Bråsvellbreen and Kvitøya.

There are some cultural heritage sites within the reserve, including a Russian Orthodox cross on Krossøya, and Andréeneset on Kvitøya, the starting point for the S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. There is also a winter camp at the shores of Sorgfjorden, which hosted an 1899–1900 Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition to measure the meridian arc. In Rijpfjorden there is a German meteorological station from World War II.

Fauna

The Kong Karls Land archipelago serves as the most important breeding ground for polar bears in Svalbard and Franz Josef Land; therefore, the archipelago is completely off limit to all visitors. Walruses have resting places in the reserve. At Alkefjleet, Brünnich's guillemots have a nesting ground, and also brent geese can be found breeding in the reserve, as can Sabine's and ivory gulls. Other important breeding areas for seabirds include Sjuøyane, Lågøya and Hinlopen Strait. A large part of the reserve, including the sea-cliffs, has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding population of 80–90 pairs of ivory gulls.

References

"Protected Areas in Svalbard". [[Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management]].
"Protected areas". [[Governor of Svalbard]].
(2013). "North-east Svalbard Nature Reserve". BirdLife International.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

nature-reserves-in-svalbard protected-areas-established-in-1973 1973-establishments-in-norway important-bird-areas-of-svalbard seabird-colonies nordaustlandet kvitøya storøya kongsøya kong-karls-land

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