Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...

Renewable energy is growing at a rapid pace globally, but as yet there has been little research on the effects of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) developments on bats, many species of which are threatened or protected. We conducted a paired study at 19 ground-mounted solar PV developments in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tinsley, Elizabeth, Froidevaux, Jérémy, Zsebok, Sandor, Szabadi, Kriszta, Jones, Gareth
Format: Dataset
Language:English
Published: Dryad 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
id ftdatacite:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
record_format openpolar
spelling ftdatacite:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p 2024-10-13T14:10:20+00:00 Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ... Tinsley, Elizabeth Froidevaux, Jérémy Zsebok, Sandor Szabadi, Kriszta Jones, Gareth 2023 https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p en eng Dryad Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode cc0-1.0 Chiroptera farmland Green energy Solar farm echolocation calls Environmental Policy Photovoltaic panels Energy-wildlife conflict FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences Dataset dataset 2023 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p 2024-10-01T11:12:04Z Renewable energy is growing at a rapid pace globally, but as yet there has been little research on the effects of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) developments on bats, many species of which are threatened or protected. We conducted a paired study at 19 ground-mounted solar PV developments in southwest England. We used static detectors to record bat echolocation calls from boundaries (i.e., hedgerows) and central locations (open areas) at fields with solar PV development, and simultaneously at matched sites without solar PV developments (control fields). We used generalized linear mixed-effect models to assess how solar PV developments and boundary habitat affected bat activity and species richness. The activity of six of eight species/species groups analysed was negatively affected by solar PV panels, suggesting that loss and/or fragmentation of foraging/commuting habitat is caused by ground-mounted solar PV panels. Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Nyctalus spp. activity was lower at solar PV sites ... : Sampling design We implemented a paired study design across 19 solar PV sites to assess whether bat species richness and activity were higher in fields and along boundary habitats that contained PV panels, compared with ‘empty’, matched control sites. This resulted in 19 sampling points for solar boundary habitat, 19 for solar open habitat, 19 for control boundary habitat, and 19 for control open habitat. All sites were located in south-west England, where the highest concentration of solar PV sites and greatest bat species richness in the UK coincide (Mathews et al. 2018; Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy 2021). Where private land was entered, permissions were granted by land owners and the relevant solar farm companies. No ethical approval was required for this study as we passively monitored bats through acoustic recordings. The control sites were within the same land management boundary as the solar PV site, and matched as closely as possible in plot size, habitat type, land use and ... Dataset Pipistrellus pipistrellus DataCite
institution Open Polar
collection DataCite
op_collection_id ftdatacite
language English
topic Chiroptera
farmland
Green energy
Solar farm
echolocation calls
Environmental Policy
Photovoltaic panels
Energy-wildlife conflict
FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
spellingShingle Chiroptera
farmland
Green energy
Solar farm
echolocation calls
Environmental Policy
Photovoltaic panels
Energy-wildlife conflict
FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
Tinsley, Elizabeth
Froidevaux, Jérémy
Zsebok, Sandor
Szabadi, Kriszta
Jones, Gareth
Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
topic_facet Chiroptera
farmland
Green energy
Solar farm
echolocation calls
Environmental Policy
Photovoltaic panels
Energy-wildlife conflict
FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
description Renewable energy is growing at a rapid pace globally, but as yet there has been little research on the effects of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) developments on bats, many species of which are threatened or protected. We conducted a paired study at 19 ground-mounted solar PV developments in southwest England. We used static detectors to record bat echolocation calls from boundaries (i.e., hedgerows) and central locations (open areas) at fields with solar PV development, and simultaneously at matched sites without solar PV developments (control fields). We used generalized linear mixed-effect models to assess how solar PV developments and boundary habitat affected bat activity and species richness. The activity of six of eight species/species groups analysed was negatively affected by solar PV panels, suggesting that loss and/or fragmentation of foraging/commuting habitat is caused by ground-mounted solar PV panels. Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Nyctalus spp. activity was lower at solar PV sites ... : Sampling design We implemented a paired study design across 19 solar PV sites to assess whether bat species richness and activity were higher in fields and along boundary habitats that contained PV panels, compared with ‘empty’, matched control sites. This resulted in 19 sampling points for solar boundary habitat, 19 for solar open habitat, 19 for control boundary habitat, and 19 for control open habitat. All sites were located in south-west England, where the highest concentration of solar PV sites and greatest bat species richness in the UK coincide (Mathews et al. 2018; Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy 2021). Where private land was entered, permissions were granted by land owners and the relevant solar farm companies. No ethical approval was required for this study as we passively monitored bats through acoustic recordings. The control sites were within the same land management boundary as the solar PV site, and matched as closely as possible in plot size, habitat type, land use and ...
format Dataset
author Tinsley, Elizabeth
Froidevaux, Jérémy
Zsebok, Sandor
Szabadi, Kriszta
Jones, Gareth
author_facet Tinsley, Elizabeth
Froidevaux, Jérémy
Zsebok, Sandor
Szabadi, Kriszta
Jones, Gareth
author_sort Tinsley, Elizabeth
title Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
title_short Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
title_full Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
title_fullStr Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
title_full_unstemmed Renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
title_sort renewable energies and biodiversity: impact of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic sites on bat activity ...
publisher Dryad
publishDate 2023
url https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
genre Pipistrellus pipistrellus
genre_facet Pipistrellus pipistrellus
op_rights Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode
cc0-1.0
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn2p
_version_ 1812817546446897152