Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo )
Wind power is useful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the construction and operation might have negative effects on biodiversity. The purpose of this study was to investigate any effects of wind farm and power line construction on territory occupancy in the vulnerable Eurasian eagle owl. W...
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2022
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 https://doaj.org/article/1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 2023-05-15T16:08:35+02:00 Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) Magne Husby Martin Pearson 2022-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 https://doaj.org/article/1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/9/1089 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-2615 doi:10.3390/ani12091089 2076-2615 https://doaj.org/article/1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 Animals, Vol 12, Iss 1089, p 1089 (2022) anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 2022-12-30T23:23:46Z Wind power is useful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the construction and operation might have negative effects on biodiversity. The purpose of this study was to investigate any effects of wind farm and power line construction on territory occupancy in the vulnerable Eurasian eagle owl. We investigated 48 eagle owl territories before and after the whole construction period and a short operation period with the use of sound meters. We found that territorial eagle owls within 4–5 km from the wind farm and power line construction disturbance left their territories to a significantly higher extent (41% reduction in the number of territories with eagle owls) compared with the eagle owls in territories further away (23% reduction). The distance from the nest site to the disturbance was significantly shorter for those territories that were abandoned compared with territories where the birds stayed. Possible reasons for this decline might be a higher mortality caused by collisions, desertion and avoidance of wind power areas caused by the noise and disturbance from their construction. In addition, there are possible indirect effects, for example reductions in prey species may force eagle owls to abandon their territories. The construction period lasted much longer than the period with active wind turbines and power lines in this investigation, but we cannot separate the effects of the two because the investigations were only possible in the eagle owl breeding season, and the wind turbines were activated shortly after the construction period. Our results imply that careful investigations are needed to detect the possible occurrence of eagle owls near any type of construction work. Studies of these territories should strongly influence how and when the construction work can be carried out, but more investigations are needed to find details about the influence of distance. Article in Journal/Newspaper eurasian eagle-owl Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Animals 12 9 1089 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 |
spellingShingle |
anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 Magne Husby Martin Pearson Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
topic_facet |
anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance Veterinary medicine SF600-1100 Zoology QL1-991 |
description |
Wind power is useful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the construction and operation might have negative effects on biodiversity. The purpose of this study was to investigate any effects of wind farm and power line construction on territory occupancy in the vulnerable Eurasian eagle owl. We investigated 48 eagle owl territories before and after the whole construction period and a short operation period with the use of sound meters. We found that territorial eagle owls within 4–5 km from the wind farm and power line construction disturbance left their territories to a significantly higher extent (41% reduction in the number of territories with eagle owls) compared with the eagle owls in territories further away (23% reduction). The distance from the nest site to the disturbance was significantly shorter for those territories that were abandoned compared with territories where the birds stayed. Possible reasons for this decline might be a higher mortality caused by collisions, desertion and avoidance of wind power areas caused by the noise and disturbance from their construction. In addition, there are possible indirect effects, for example reductions in prey species may force eagle owls to abandon their territories. The construction period lasted much longer than the period with active wind turbines and power lines in this investigation, but we cannot separate the effects of the two because the investigations were only possible in the eagle owl breeding season, and the wind turbines were activated shortly after the construction period. Our results imply that careful investigations are needed to detect the possible occurrence of eagle owls near any type of construction work. Studies of these territories should strongly influence how and when the construction work can be carried out, but more investigations are needed to find details about the influence of distance. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Magne Husby Martin Pearson |
author_facet |
Magne Husby Martin Pearson |
author_sort |
Magne Husby |
title |
Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
title_short |
Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
title_full |
Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
title_fullStr |
Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) |
title_sort |
wind farms and power lines have negative effects on territory occupancy in eurasian eagle owls ( bubo bubo ) |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 https://doaj.org/article/1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 |
genre |
eurasian eagle-owl |
genre_facet |
eurasian eagle-owl |
op_source |
Animals, Vol 12, Iss 1089, p 1089 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/9/1089 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-2615 doi:10.3390/ani12091089 2076-2615 https://doaj.org/article/1f1822281bac43edb95f3aef10434c43 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 |
container_title |
Animals |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
1089 |
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1766404614126567424 |