Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed
Wind turbines represent a source of hazard for bats, especially through collision with rotor blades. With increasing technical development, tall turbines (rotor-swept zone 50–150 m above ground level) are becoming widespread, yet we lack quantitative information about species active at these heights...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5862399 2023-05-15T17:59:56+02:00 Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed Wellig, Sascha D. Nusslé, Sébastien Miltner, Daniela Kohle, Oliver Glaizot, Olivier Braunisch, Veronika Obrist, Martin K. Arlettaz, Raphaël 2018-03-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862399/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29561851 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862399/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29561851 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 © 2018 Wellig et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 2018-04-01T00:17:19Z Wind turbines represent a source of hazard for bats, especially through collision with rotor blades. With increasing technical development, tall turbines (rotor-swept zone 50–150 m above ground level) are becoming widespread, yet we lack quantitative information about species active at these heights, which impedes proposing targeted mitigation recommendations for bat-friendly turbine operation. We investigated vertical activity profiles of a bat assemblage, and their relationships to wind speed, within a major valley of the European Alps where tall wind turbines are being deployed. To monitor bat activity we installed automatic recorders at sequentially increasing heights from ground level up to 65 m, with the goal to determine species-specific vertical activity profiles and to link them to wind speed. Bat call sequences were analysed with an automatic algorithm, paying particular attention to mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii) and the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis), three locally rare species. The most often recorded bats were the Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and Savi’s pipistrelle (Hypsugo savii). Mouse-eared bats were rarely recorded, and mostly just above ground, appearing out of risk of collision. T. teniotis had a more evenly distributed vertical activity profile, often being active at rotor level, but its activity at that height ceased above 5 ms-1 wind speed. Overall bat activity in the rotor-swept zone declined with increasing wind speed, dropping below 5% above 5.4 ms-1. Collision risk could be drastically reduced if nocturnal operation of tall wind turbines would be restricted to wind speeds above 5 ms-1. Such measure should be implemented year-round because T. teniotis remains active in winter. This operational restriction is likely to cause only small energy production losses at these tall wind turbines, although further analyses are needed to assess these losses precisely. Text Pipistrellus pipistrellus PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 13 3 e0192493 |
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Research Article Wellig, Sascha D. Nusslé, Sébastien Miltner, Daniela Kohle, Oliver Glaizot, Olivier Braunisch, Veronika Obrist, Martin K. Arlettaz, Raphaël Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
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Research Article |
description |
Wind turbines represent a source of hazard for bats, especially through collision with rotor blades. With increasing technical development, tall turbines (rotor-swept zone 50–150 m above ground level) are becoming widespread, yet we lack quantitative information about species active at these heights, which impedes proposing targeted mitigation recommendations for bat-friendly turbine operation. We investigated vertical activity profiles of a bat assemblage, and their relationships to wind speed, within a major valley of the European Alps where tall wind turbines are being deployed. To monitor bat activity we installed automatic recorders at sequentially increasing heights from ground level up to 65 m, with the goal to determine species-specific vertical activity profiles and to link them to wind speed. Bat call sequences were analysed with an automatic algorithm, paying particular attention to mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii) and the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis), three locally rare species. The most often recorded bats were the Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and Savi’s pipistrelle (Hypsugo savii). Mouse-eared bats were rarely recorded, and mostly just above ground, appearing out of risk of collision. T. teniotis had a more evenly distributed vertical activity profile, often being active at rotor level, but its activity at that height ceased above 5 ms-1 wind speed. Overall bat activity in the rotor-swept zone declined with increasing wind speed, dropping below 5% above 5.4 ms-1. Collision risk could be drastically reduced if nocturnal operation of tall wind turbines would be restricted to wind speeds above 5 ms-1. Such measure should be implemented year-round because T. teniotis remains active in winter. This operational restriction is likely to cause only small energy production losses at these tall wind turbines, although further analyses are needed to assess these losses precisely. |
format |
Text |
author |
Wellig, Sascha D. Nusslé, Sébastien Miltner, Daniela Kohle, Oliver Glaizot, Olivier Braunisch, Veronika Obrist, Martin K. Arlettaz, Raphaël |
author_facet |
Wellig, Sascha D. Nusslé, Sébastien Miltner, Daniela Kohle, Oliver Glaizot, Olivier Braunisch, Veronika Obrist, Martin K. Arlettaz, Raphaël |
author_sort |
Wellig, Sascha D. |
title |
Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
title_short |
Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
title_full |
Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
title_fullStr |
Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
title_sort |
mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862399/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29561851 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 |
genre |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5862399/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29561851 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 |
op_rights |
© 2018 Wellig et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192493 |
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PLOS ONE |
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13 |
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3 |
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e0192493 |
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