Reconciling endangered species conservation with wind farm development: Cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) in south-eastern Europe

Vasilakis, Dimitris P.; Whitfield, D. Philip; Schindler, Stefan; Poirazidis, Κonstantinos; Kati, Vassiliki

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.01.014

Cited by 44 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…1; Table S1 in Appendix S1). To define 'wind farm areas', we drew a concave polygon through the outer wind turbine towers of the wind farms and added a buffer of 200 m (Vasilakis et al 2016;Fig. 1).…”

Section: Study Area and Wind Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, avoidance behaviour has been quantified by comparing the expected number of collisions in the absence of avoidance behaviour derived from collision risk models (CRMs; e.g. Band et al 2007) with the actual number of collision fatalities recorded with carcass searches (Vasilakis et al 2016). However, instead of relying on the bias-prone results from carcass searches (Madders & Whitfield 2006), we based our analysis of avoidance behaviour exclusively on flights recorded by GPS tracking in this study, comparing observed tracks with a null model of random flight behaviour (Hull & Muir 2013, Thaxter et al 2018.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The results of these two stages are multiplied by each other and by the rate of non-avoidance (1avoidance rate) to obtain the expected number of collisions. Similar to the approach ofVasilakis et al (2016), we multiplied the average number of breeding pairs of Montagu's Harriers in the study area (indicating the population size of breeding males) by the length of the breeding season in days, the amount of time spent…”

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confidence: 99%

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Collision risk of Montagu’s Harriers Circus pygargus with wind turbines derived from high‐resolution GPS tracking

Schaub

Klaassen

Bouten

et al. 2019

Ibis

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Flight behaviour characteristics such as flight altitude and avoidance behaviour determine the species‐specific collision risk of birds with wind turbines. However, traditional observational methods exhibit limited positional accuracy. High‐resolution GPS telemetry represents a promising method to overcome this drawback. In this study, we used three‐dimensional GPS tracking data including high‐accuracy tracks recorded at 3‐s intervals to investigate the collision risk of breeding male Montagu's Harriers Circus pygargus in the Dutch–German border region. Avoidance of wind turbines was quantified by a novel approach comparing observed flights to a null model of random flight behaviour. On average, Montagu's Harriers spent as much as 8.2 h per day in flight. Most flights were at low altitude, with only 7.1% within the average rotor height range (RHR; 45–125 m). Montagu's Harriers showed significant avoidance behaviour, approaching turbines less often than expected, particularly when flying within the RHR (avoidance rate of 93.5%). For the present state, with wind farms situated on the fringes of the regional nesting range, collision risk models based on our new insights on flight behaviour indicated 0.6–2.0 yearly collisions of adult males (as compared with a population size of c. 40 pairs). However, the erection of a new wind farm inside the core breeding area could markedly increase mortality (up to 9.7 yearly collisions). If repowering of the wind farms was carried out using low‐reaching modern turbines (RHR 36–150 m), mortality would more than double, whereas it would stay approximately constant if higher turbines (RHR 86–200 m) were used. Our study demonstrates the great potential of high‐resolution GPS tracking for collision risk assessments. The resulting information on collision‐related flight behaviour allows for performing detailed scenario analyses on wind farm siting and turbine design, in contrast to current environmental assessment practices. With regard to Montagu's Harriers, we conclude that although the deployment of higher wind turbines represents an opportunity to reduce collision risk for this species, precluding wind energy developments in core breeding areas remains the most important mitigation measure.

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Section: Study Area and Wind Farmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Collision risk of Montagu’s Harriers Circus pygargus with wind turbines derived from high‐resolution GPS tracking

Schaub

Klaassen

Bouten

et al. 2019

Ibis

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“…How this energy landscape controls collision risk with human infrastructure and aircraft has received little attention so far, yet this information is critical to minimize the effect of infrastructures on wildlife populations, and in particular the effect of wind farms (Barrios & Rodr ıguez 2004;Vasilakis et al 2016). Because of the conjunction of several vulnerability factors (slow pace of life, relatively poor manoeuvrability when soaring, tendency to focus on the ground below them rather than surveying for threats above and in front), soaring raptors are especially at risk from wind power developments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The energy landscape predicts flight height and wind turbine collision hazard in three species of large soaring raptor

Péron

Fleming

Duriez

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Collisions of large soaring raptors with wind turbines and other infrastructures represent a growing conservation concern. We describe a way to leverage knowledge about raptor soaring behaviour to forecast the probability that raptors fly in the rotor-swept zone. Soaring raptors are theoretically expected to select energy sources (uplift) optimally, making their flight height dependent on uplift conditions. This approach can be used to forecast collision hazard when planning or operating wind farms. Empirical investigations of the factors influencing flight height have, however, so far been hindered by observation error. 2. We propose a two-pronged approach. First, we fitted state-space models to z-axis GPS tracking data to filter heavy-tailed observation error and estimate the relationship between vertical movement parameters and weather variables describing the energy landscape (thermal and orographic uplift potential). Second, we fitted a mechanistic model of flight height above ground based on aerodynamics and resource selection theories. The approach was replicated for five GPS-tracked Andean condors Vultur gryphus, eight griffon vultures Gyps fulvus, and six golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos. 3. In all individuals, movement parameters correlated with thermal uplift potential in the expected direction. In all species, collision hazard was lowest for high thermal uplift potential values. Species specificities in the presence of a peak in collision hazard for medium values of thermal uplift potential could be explained by differences in wing loading and aspect ratio. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our fitted models convert weather data (thermal uplift potential) into a prediction of collision hazard (probability to fly in the rotor-swept zone), making it possible to prioritize different wind development projects with respect to the relative hazard they would pose to raptors. However, our model should be combined with post-construction monitoring to document, and eventually account for turbine avoidance behaviours in collision rate predictions. Supporting InformationDetails of electronic Supporting Information are provided below.

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“…Despite their essential ecological role in reducing the spread of infectious diseases (S ßekercio glu et al 2004(S ßekercio glu et al , Margalida et al 2012 or disposing of carrion (Ogada et al 2012), nearly 69% of vulture species are considered Near-Threatened, Threatened or Endangered across many parts of the world (BirdLife International 2017). Their unfavourable status is mainly caused by human impact through poisoning (Janss & Ferrer 2001), shooting (Ogada et al 2012), food scarcity due to overhunting of mammals (Houston 1987), habitat alteration (> 98% in West Africa; Heredia 1996, Thiollay 2006) and wind farm collisions (Vasilakis et al 2016). Another major threat to Asian (> 95% abundance of Gyps species) and African vultures has been diclofenac contamination of livestock carcasses between 1990 and 2006 (Oaks et al 2004, Swan et al 2006, Ogada et al 2016, after which veterinary use of diclofenac was banned.…”

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confidence: 99%

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

Çakmak

Pekşen

Kirazlı

et al. 2018

Ibis

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Vulture populations worldwide have suffered precipitous declines in recent decades. The Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus, a highly philopatric scavenger distributed across southern Europe and the central Asian plateau, is threatened in many parts of its range. Turkey holds the second largest population of this species in the Western Palaearctic, but there has been no research on its genetic structure and the possible implications of this structure for the future of the species. Here we report nuclear diversity and relatedness determined by short tandem repeat genotyping of 81 individuals from the four largest colonies. Our results demonstrated no significant genetic structuring, suggesting a single panmictic metapopulation connected by frequent dispersal. Furthermore, we show that the study population has retained moderate levels of genetic diversity, despite passing through a recent demographic bottleneck. We estimated the effective population size to be 112 individuals (95% confidence interval 74–201). Our results imply that the observed lack of increase in population size since the 1990s has not been caused by lowered fitness due to genetic inbreeding but rather by increased mortality via demographic processes. In the short term, we suggest that conservation efforts should treat the Turkish subpopulations as a single management unit and aim to increase population size through effective protection, especially during the breeding season.

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Reconciling endangered species conservation with wind farm development: Cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) in south-eastern Europe

Cited by 44 publications

References 38 publications

Collision risk of Montagu’s Harriers Circus pygargus with wind turbines derived from high‐resolution GPS tracking

Collision risk of Montagu’s Harriers Circus pygargus with wind turbines derived from high‐resolution GPS tracking

The energy landscape predicts flight height and wind turbine collision hazard in three species of large soaring raptor

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

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