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...
Published in: | Animals |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 |
id |
ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/12/9/1089/ |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2076-2615/12/9/1089/ 2023-08-20T04:06:19+02:00 Wind Farms and Power Lines Have Negative Effects on Territory Occupancy in Eurasian Eagle Owls (Bubo bubo) Magne Husby Martin Pearson agris 2022-04-22 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Animals; Volume 12; Issue 9; Pages: 1089 anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance turbines wind energy wind farm construction Text 2022 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 2023-08-01T04:50:25Z 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. Text eurasian eagle-owl MDPI Open Access Publishing Animals 12 9 1089 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance turbines wind energy wind farm construction |
spellingShingle |
anthropogenic disturbance birds construction influence area territory tolerance turbines wind energy wind farm construction 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 turbines wind energy wind farm construction |
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 |
Text |
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 |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 |
op_coverage |
agris |
genre |
eurasian eagle-owl |
genre_facet |
eurasian eagle-owl |
op_source |
Animals; Volume 12; Issue 9; Pages: 1089 |
op_relation |
Wildlife https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091089 |
container_title |
Animals |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
1089 |
_version_ |
1774717330724487168 |