Seabird avoidance and attraction at an offshore wind farm in the Belgian part of the North Sea

Vanermen, Nicolas; Onkelinx, Thierry; Courtens, Wouter; Walle, Marc Van De; Verstraete, Hilbran; Stienen, Eric

doi:10.1007/s10750-014-2088-x

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…We have learned more about the variability of the ecosystem indicating that long-term monitoring is needed to be able to detect various effects through time, e.g. the effect of trawling cessation on the benthos (Lindeboom et al, 2011) or the displacement effects on seabirds (Vanermen et al, 2015a). We learned that basic monitoring by itself (e.g.…”

Section: Lessons Learnedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ecologically 'negative' impacts may include the altered sediment characteristics, increased erosion of the natural sandy sediments around wind turbine foundations (Vanden Eynde et al, 2013), an increase in the non-indigenous species on the hard substrata (Kerckhof et al, 2011), an obvious disturbance of seabirds because of avoidance and collision (Busch et al, 2013;Vanermen et al, 2015a) and the increased sound pressure on the marine environment and its impact on marine mammals (Haelters et al, 2015;Dähne et al, 2013) and fish (Gill et al, 2012;Krägefsky, 2014). The 'positive' impacts include, for example, the enrichment and colonisation of the soft and hard substratum invertebrates and fish (e.g.…”

Section: Basic Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The artificial reef effect may further explain the attraction of some bird species (e.g. common tern Sterna hirundo or great cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo) to the wind parks as it is hypothesised that these species benefit from a yet unexplored increased availability of pelagic fish (Vanermen et al, 2015a). Whether or not pelagic prey fish also attract marine mammals, such as harbour porpoises, remains yet to be resolved (Haelters et al, 2013).…”

Section: Targeted Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Offshore wind park monitoring programmes, lessons learned and recommendations for the future

et al. 2015

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Over a decade of monitoring offshore wind park environmental impact triggered a reflection on the overall objectives and how to best continue with the monitoring programmes. Essentially, basic monitoring has to be rationalised at the level of the likelihood of impact detection, the meaningfulness of impact size and representativeness of the findings. Targeted monitoring is crucial and should continue to be applied to disentangle processes behind observed impacts, for instance the overarching artificial reef effect caused by wind parks. The major challenge, however, remains to achieve a reliable assessment of the cumulative impacts. A continuous international consultation and collaboration with marine scientists, managers, government officials and industry will be needed to ensure an optimisation of the future monitoring programmes.

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Section: Lessons Learnedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Basic Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Targeted Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Offshore wind park monitoring programmes, lessons learned and recommendations for the future

et al. 2015

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“…Visual observers of Bureau Waardenburg, conducting these studies noted some seabird behavioural traits in the margin of these radar studies: they noted, for instance, that gulls seemed undisturbed by the presence of the turbines and that they sometimes even foraged in the wind farm (Krijgsveld et al 2011). Foraging has also been observed (in passing) during seabirds at sea counts from ships by e.g., Leopold et al (2009, 6 of 27 | Wageningen Marine Research report C068/18 2011) and Vanermen et al (2014): great cormorants, gulls, terns and auks have been seen feeding in offshore wind farms occasionally. Great cormorants were probably the first birds to fully exploit wind farms at sea, as these offered both feeding and resting (wing drying) opportunities for this species.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Birds may enter a wind farm accidentally and, once inside, may move away from it quickly. Alternatively, birds may specifically seek out a wind farm to rest (if, for instance, shipping intensity is relatively low here, or use the turbine foundations or other structures to rest), or they may come in to exploit new feeding opportunities (Vanermen et al 2014). It is thus important to learn more about the behaviour of seabirds within offshore wind farms.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pilot field study: observations from a fixed platform on occurrence and behaviour of common guillemots and other seabirds in offshore wind farm Luchterduinen

Leopold¹,

Onderzoeksformatie²,

Verdaat³

2018

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Research is registered in the Dutch traderecord nr. 09098104, BTW nr. NL 806511618The Management of Wageningen Marine Research is not responsible for resulting damage, as well as for damage resulting from the application of results or research obtained by Wageningen Marine Research, its clients or any claims related to the application of information found within its research. This report has been made on the request of the client and is wholly the client's property.This report may not be reproduced and/or published partially or in its entirety without the express written consent of the client.

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Forage Fish Species Prefer Habitat within Designated Offshore Wind Energy Areas in the U.S. Northeast Shelf Ecosystem

et al. 2023

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As the world develops sources of renewable energy, there is an intensifying interest in offshore wind energy production. The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf (NES) ecosystem has favorable wind dynamics, with active development of wind energy. In this study, we present species distribution models that consider both occupancy and biomass responses for a broad spectrum of fish and macroinvertebrate taxa (n = 177). Building upon prior analyses, habitat was differentiated into overall and core habitats based on statistical distributions of habitat scores. Overall habitat was used to show each species' regional distribution based on fishery‐independent survey captures between 1976 and 2019, whereas core habitat represented where the focus of the species' abundance was located as a subset of overall habitat. Wind energy developments may modify the water column in ways that impact lower‐trophic‐level productivity; therefore, added attention was given to the response of forage species. Over 20% of species showed preferential use of putative and potential wind development areas, including a disproportionate number of forage taxa. Principal usage varied by season, with forage species like Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus and Atlantic Mackerel Scomber scombrus preferentially using the lease areas in spring and Round Herring Etrumeus teres and longfin inshore squid Doryteuthis pealeii using lease areas in autumn. For species with relatively low usage of the lease areas, there was a tendency for the usage related to overall habitat to be lower than usage for core habitat; in contrast, for species with high usage of the lease areas, that usage was higher for overall habitat than for core habitat. The area of habitat tended to have positive trends across species, with these positive trends being disproportionately higher among forage taxa. These results frame the importance of wind lease areas for species in the NES, particularly forage taxa that fulfill many important ecological functions.

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Seabird avoidance and attraction at an offshore wind farm in the Belgian part of the North Sea

Cited by 59 publications

References 26 publications

Offshore wind park monitoring programmes, lessons learned and recommendations for the future

Offshore wind park monitoring programmes, lessons learned and recommendations for the future

Pilot field study: observations from a fixed platform on occurrence and behaviour of common guillemots and other seabirds in offshore wind farm Luchterduinen

Forage Fish Species Prefer Habitat within Designated Offshore Wind Energy Areas in the U.S. Northeast Shelf Ecosystem

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