Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation
Abstract To meet the expanding land use required for wind energy development, a better understanding of the effects on terrestrial animals’ responses to such development is required. Using GPS ‐data from 50 freely ranging female reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ) in the Malå reindeer herding community,...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.4476 2024-09-09T20:04:46+00:00 Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation Skarin, Anna Sandström, Per Alam, Moudud Energimyndigheten Naturvårdsverket 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4476 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.4476 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.4476 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 8, issue 19, page 9906-9919 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2018 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4476 2024-08-13T04:16:51Z Abstract To meet the expanding land use required for wind energy development, a better understanding of the effects on terrestrial animals’ responses to such development is required. Using GPS ‐data from 50 freely ranging female reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ) in the Malå reindeer herding community, Sweden, we determined reindeer calving sites and estimated reindeer habitat selection using resource selection functions ( RSF ). RSF s were estimated at both second‐ (selection of home range) and third‐order (selection within home range) scale in relation to environmental variables, wind farm ( WF ) development phase (before construction, construction, and operation), distance to the WF s and at the second‐order scale whether the wind turbines were in or out of sight of the reindeer. We found that the distance between reindeer calving site and WFs increased during the operation phase, compared to before construction. At both scales of selection, we found a significant decrease in habitat selection of areas in proximity of the WF s, in the same comparison. The results also revealed a shift in home range selection away from habitats where wind turbines became visible toward habitats where the wind turbines were obscured by topography (increase in use by 79% at 5 km). We interpret the reindeer shift in home range selection as an effect of the wind turbines per se. Using topography and land cover information together with the positions of wind turbines could therefore help identify sensitive habitats for reindeer and improve the planning and placement of WF s. In addition, we found that operation phase of these WF s had a stronger adverse impact on reindeer habitat selection than the construction phase. Thus, the continuous running of the wind turbines making a sound both day and night seemed to have disturbed the reindeer more than the sudden sounds and increased human activity during construction work. Article in Journal/Newspaper Rangifer tarandus Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 8 19 9906 9919 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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language |
English |
description |
Abstract To meet the expanding land use required for wind energy development, a better understanding of the effects on terrestrial animals’ responses to such development is required. Using GPS ‐data from 50 freely ranging female reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ) in the Malå reindeer herding community, Sweden, we determined reindeer calving sites and estimated reindeer habitat selection using resource selection functions ( RSF ). RSF s were estimated at both second‐ (selection of home range) and third‐order (selection within home range) scale in relation to environmental variables, wind farm ( WF ) development phase (before construction, construction, and operation), distance to the WF s and at the second‐order scale whether the wind turbines were in or out of sight of the reindeer. We found that the distance between reindeer calving site and WFs increased during the operation phase, compared to before construction. At both scales of selection, we found a significant decrease in habitat selection of areas in proximity of the WF s, in the same comparison. The results also revealed a shift in home range selection away from habitats where wind turbines became visible toward habitats where the wind turbines were obscured by topography (increase in use by 79% at 5 km). We interpret the reindeer shift in home range selection as an effect of the wind turbines per se. Using topography and land cover information together with the positions of wind turbines could therefore help identify sensitive habitats for reindeer and improve the planning and placement of WF s. In addition, we found that operation phase of these WF s had a stronger adverse impact on reindeer habitat selection than the construction phase. Thus, the continuous running of the wind turbines making a sound both day and night seemed to have disturbed the reindeer more than the sudden sounds and increased human activity during construction work. |
author2 |
Energimyndigheten Naturvårdsverket |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Skarin, Anna Sandström, Per Alam, Moudud |
spellingShingle |
Skarin, Anna Sandström, Per Alam, Moudud Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
author_facet |
Skarin, Anna Sandström, Per Alam, Moudud |
author_sort |
Skarin, Anna |
title |
Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
title_short |
Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
title_full |
Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
title_fullStr |
Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Out of sight of wind turbines—Reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
title_sort |
out of sight of wind turbines—reindeer response to wind farms in operation |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4476 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.4476 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.4476 |
genre |
Rangifer tarandus |
genre_facet |
Rangifer tarandus |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 8, issue 19, page 9906-9919 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4476 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
19 |
container_start_page |
9906 |
op_container_end_page |
9919 |
_version_ |
1809937054591614976 |