Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation.
Potential wind-energy development in the eastern Rocky Mountain foothills of British Columbia, Canada, raises concerns due to its overlap with a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) migration corridor. The Dokie 1 Wind Energy Project is the first development in this area and stands as a model for other...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9b6b1a7a78954d67a4202a7bac894ea1 2023-05-15T18:49:22+02:00 Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. Naira N Johnston James E Bradley Ken A Otter 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 https://doaj.org/article/9b6b1a7a78954d67a4202a7bac894ea1 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3966850?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 https://doaj.org/article/9b6b1a7a78954d67a4202a7bac894ea1 PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e93030 (2014) Medicine R Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 2022-12-31T06:30:14Z Potential wind-energy development in the eastern Rocky Mountain foothills of British Columbia, Canada, raises concerns due to its overlap with a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) migration corridor. The Dokie 1 Wind Energy Project is the first development in this area and stands as a model for other projects in the area because of regional consistency in topographic orientation and weather patterns. We visually tracked golden eagles over three fall migration seasons (2009-2011), one pre- and two post-construction, to document eagle flight behaviour in relation to a ridge-top wind energy development. We estimated three-dimensional positions of eagles in space as they migrated through our study site. Flight tracks were then incorporated into GIS to ascertain flight altitudes for eagles that flew over the ridge-top area (or turbine string). Individual flight paths were designated to a category of collision-risk based on flight altitude (e.g. flights within rotor-swept height; ≤150 m above ground) and wind speed (winds sufficient for the spinning of turbines; >6.8 km/h at ground level). Eagles were less likely to fly over the ridge-top area within rotor-swept height (risk zone) as wind speed increased, but were more likely to make such crosses under headwinds and tailwinds compared to western crosswinds. Most importantly, we observed a smaller proportion of flights within the risk zone at wind speeds sufficient for the spinning of turbines (higher-risk flights) during post-construction compared to pre-construction, suggesting that eagles showed detection and avoidance of turbines during migration. Article in Journal/Newspaper Aquila chrysaetos golden eagle Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada British Columbia ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) Corridor The ENVELOPE(78.139,78.139,-68.582,-68.582) Corridor, The ENVELOPE(78.139,78.139,-68.582,-68.582) Rocky Mountain Foothills ENVELOPE(-123.003,-123.003,56.500,56.500) Dokie ENVELOPE(-121.720,-121.720,55.650,55.650) PLoS ONE 9 3 e93030 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Naira N Johnston James E Bradley Ken A Otter Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Potential wind-energy development in the eastern Rocky Mountain foothills of British Columbia, Canada, raises concerns due to its overlap with a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) migration corridor. The Dokie 1 Wind Energy Project is the first development in this area and stands as a model for other projects in the area because of regional consistency in topographic orientation and weather patterns. We visually tracked golden eagles over three fall migration seasons (2009-2011), one pre- and two post-construction, to document eagle flight behaviour in relation to a ridge-top wind energy development. We estimated three-dimensional positions of eagles in space as they migrated through our study site. Flight tracks were then incorporated into GIS to ascertain flight altitudes for eagles that flew over the ridge-top area (or turbine string). Individual flight paths were designated to a category of collision-risk based on flight altitude (e.g. flights within rotor-swept height; ≤150 m above ground) and wind speed (winds sufficient for the spinning of turbines; >6.8 km/h at ground level). Eagles were less likely to fly over the ridge-top area within rotor-swept height (risk zone) as wind speed increased, but were more likely to make such crosses under headwinds and tailwinds compared to western crosswinds. Most importantly, we observed a smaller proportion of flights within the risk zone at wind speeds sufficient for the spinning of turbines (higher-risk flights) during post-construction compared to pre-construction, suggesting that eagles showed detection and avoidance of turbines during migration. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Naira N Johnston James E Bradley Ken A Otter |
author_facet |
Naira N Johnston James E Bradley Ken A Otter |
author_sort |
Naira N Johnston |
title |
Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
title_short |
Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
title_full |
Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
title_fullStr |
Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a Rocky Mountain wind installation. |
title_sort |
increased flight altitudes among migrating golden eagles suggest turbine avoidance at a rocky mountain wind installation. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 https://doaj.org/article/9b6b1a7a78954d67a4202a7bac894ea1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-125.003,-125.003,54.000,54.000) ENVELOPE(78.139,78.139,-68.582,-68.582) ENVELOPE(78.139,78.139,-68.582,-68.582) ENVELOPE(-123.003,-123.003,56.500,56.500) ENVELOPE(-121.720,-121.720,55.650,55.650) |
geographic |
Canada British Columbia Corridor The Corridor, The Rocky Mountain Foothills Dokie |
geographic_facet |
Canada British Columbia Corridor The Corridor, The Rocky Mountain Foothills Dokie |
genre |
Aquila chrysaetos golden eagle |
genre_facet |
Aquila chrysaetos golden eagle |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e93030 (2014) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3966850?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 https://doaj.org/article/9b6b1a7a78954d67a4202a7bac894ea1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093030 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
e93030 |
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