Mortality of Bats at a Large-scale Wind Power Development at Buffalo Ridge, Minnesota

Johnson, Gregory D.; Erickson, Wallace P.; Strickland, M. Dale; Shepherd, Maria F.; Shepherd, Douglas A.; Sarappo, Sharon A.

doi:10.1674/0003-0031(2003)150[0332:mobaal]2.0.co;2

Cited by 115 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Johnson (2004) reported that, in open prairie and farmland, bat fatality appears to be low during the breeding season; only 66 of the 1,628 reported fatalities (4.1%) occurred between May 15 and July 15. At several wind farms studied, low mortality has been documented during the breeding season even though relatively large numbers of bats were present in the area (Fiedler 2004;Gruver 2002;Howe et al 2002;Johnson et al 2003). Most of these wind farms were in open areas such as crop fields, grasslands, and shrub steppe, and breeding bats may be more prone to collision at wind farms constructed in bat foraging habitats, such as those constructed in forested areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some species of bats are known to night-roost and many species "hawk" for insect prey (Kunz 1982(Kunz , 2004 To date only a few published studies have attempted to evaluate the impact of installed wind turbines on local and migrating bat populations (e.g., Johnson et al 2003. These studies focused primarily on quantifying the impact of turbines on local and migrating populations by enumerating injured and killed animals beneath and adjacent to operating turbines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past experiments to assess carcass removal may not have been representative of scavenging on bats in the field, since many studies used small birds to represent bats. Two studies conducted by and Johnson et al (2003) used bat carcasses (estimated to be killed the previous night when found) and found similar or lower scavenging rates on bat carcasses compared to small bird carcasses. However, small sample sizes may have biased estimates and limited the scope of inference.…”

Section: Study Areas Turbinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bat carcasses were also found in higher numbers on these two days, which were characterized by thick morning fogs and low cloud ceilings. Erickson et al 2000, Puzen 2002, Ahlen 2003, Johnson et al 2003a. In the U.S., bat collision fatalities often are reported in conjunction with avian monitoring studies at wind energy facilities.…”

Section: Summary Of Bird Fatalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current information suggests that the majority of bat collision fatalities at wind turbines occur during the autumn migration period (generally late July through early September) and that species known to undergo long-distance migration (e.g., hoary bat, eastern red bat) constitute the majority of known mortality (e.g., , Johnson et al 2003a. Larger concentrations of bats migrating over an area at one time may increase the likelihood of collision with wind turbines.…”

Section: Summary Of Bird Fatalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bat Mortality at a Wind Power Facility in Central Canada

Jameson¹,

Willis²

2012

Northwestern Naturalist

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where he is studied habitat selection of bats in managed forests of the Cascade Range in western Oregon. He has been involved with cooperative management and research on bats and their habitats for the past 10 years, including the development and initiation of the Northwest Bat Cooperative. He holds an A.A.S. in natural resources management, a B.S. in fish and wildlife management, and an M.S. in zoology and physiology. Prior to returning to graduate school for his Doctorate degree, Ed was a wildlife research biologist with Weyerhaeuser Company and a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service in Oregon.Wallace P. Erickson is a statistician and project manager with Western Ecosystems Technology and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Statistics at the University of Wyoming. He has a B.S. in Statistics from Winona State University, and a M.S. in Statistics from teh University of Wyoming. He has over 14 years of work experience related to the design and analysis of environmental and wildlife studies working for Western EcoSystems Technology and has been involved with studies of the impacts of wind plants on wildlife in numerous states since 1994. Wally holds a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in statistics.Jason Horn is a Ph.D. candidate in the Biology Department at Boston University and an ecological consultant, focusing on organismal and behavioral biology. His dissertation research focuses on several aspects of bat ecology including social and foraging behavior, nightly activity patterns, and population dynamics. In particular, he has developed analytical methods for describing patterns of flight behavior and dispersal using emerging technologies such as infrared thermography, passive transponders, and large-scale RADAR imagery. Recently, he has applied these methods to studying flight patterns and interaction between bats and wind turbines. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, The American Society of Mammalogists, The American Museum of Natural History and Bat Conservation International. Jason holds a B.A. in biology from Cornell and M.A. in biology from Boston University. Jessica Kerns Patterns of Bat FatalityA total of 398 and 262 bat fatalities were found during searches at Mountaineer and Meyersdale, respectively, during the 6-week study period. Six species were killed at Mountaineer and 7 at Meyersdale: hoary bats, eastern red bats, eastern pipistrelles, little brown bats, silver-haired bats, big brown bats, and northern long-eared bats (only found at Meyersdale)were discovered(from highest to lowest number found). More adult male bats were found than juvenile males, adult females, or juvenile female bats.Bat fatalities were highly variable and periodic throughout the study. Fatalities were distributed across all turbines, although higher than average numbers of bats generally were found at turbines located near an end or center of the string at both sites. Of the 64 turbines studied, one (turbine 11 at Mountaineer) was non-operationa...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Areas Turbinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary Of Bird Fatalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary Of Bird Fatalitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bat Mortality at a Wind Power Facility in Central Canada

Jameson¹,

Willis²

2012

Northwestern Naturalist

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Sensitivity analysis of collision risk at wind turbines based on flight altitude of migratory waterbirds

Kamata

Sato

Mukai

et al. 2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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A rapid increase in wind power generation has led to bird collisions becoming a serious problem worldwide. Developing useful sensitivity maps to select low‐risk sites for birds is an urgent issue. For migratory birds, such as geese and swans, that visit different habitats throughout their life cycle, it is important to conduct risk assessments that take into account their behavioural characteristics in each habitat. Geese and swans fly and migrate at varying altitudes (above the ground) ranging from 10 to hundreds of metres. Accurate predictions of avian flight altitudes are essential in assessing the risks of collisions with human‐made structures. We first obtained location data for four species of geese and swans to identify their spring migratory routes within Japan (Bean Goose Anser fabalis and Anser serrirostris, Greater White‐fronted Goose Anser albifrons, Tundra Swan Cygnus columbianus bewickii and Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus). As all four species used the same roosts and overlapping foraging areas from winter to spring, a single migratory route was defined by integrating the location data of the four species. Flight trajectories were tracked using an ornithodolite. The median flight height for these four species in all landscape types was 150 m or less. Then a LASSO regression model was created with flight altitude obtained as the response variable and topographic and landscape factors as explanatory variables. Trends in flight altitude with environmental differences were similar for the four species, indicating that topographical factors strongly influence flight altitude. Finally, a statistical model was used to predict flight altitudes along migration routes. The sensitivity maps we generated showed that for all four species, most flight heights during spring were within the wind turbine range, suggesting that their risk of collision with wind turbines was greater along their migratory route. Sensitivity maps that accurately reflect avian flight characteristics help provide useful information when considering the location of further wind turbine construction.

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Windenergienutzung und Naturschutz

Bartolomäus¹

2004

Handbuch Naturschutz Und Landschaftspflege

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Mortality of Bats at a Large-scale Wind Power Development at Buffalo Ridge, Minnesota

Cited by 115 publications

References 22 publications

Bat Mortality at a Wind Power Facility in Central Canada

Bat Mortality at a Wind Power Facility in Central Canada

Sensitivity analysis of collision risk at wind turbines based on flight altitude of migratory waterbirds

Windenergienutzung und Naturschutz

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