Coastal onshore wind turbines lead to habitat loss for bats in Northern Germany ...

• Main Authors: Reusch, Christine, Lozar, Maja, Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie, Voigt, Christian C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Nyctalus noctula
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13433592; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13433592

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) S Wind energy production is particularly rewarding along coastlines, yet coastlines are often important as migratory corridors for wildlife. This creates a conflict between energy production from renewable sources and conservation goals, which needs to be considered during environmental planning. To shed light on the spatial interactions of a high collision risk bat species with coastal wind turbines (WT), we analysed 32 tracks of 11 common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) in Northern Germany with miniaturized global positioning system units yielding 6266 locations. We used three spatial models to infer on the preferred and avoided landscape features in interaction with WT. We found 3.4% of all locations close to WT, with bats preferring areas with high levels of impervious surface, identified as farmhouses. Common noctule bats were also more present close to WT adjacent to paths and waterbodies. At the local scale, >70% of common noctule bats avoided WT, ...