Item talk:Q227155
From geokb
{
"@context": "http://schema.org/", "@type": "WebPage", "additionalType": "Project", "url": "https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/usgs-research-effects-renewable-energy-wildlife", "headline": "USGS research on the effects of renewable energy on wildlife", "datePublished": "January 25, 2023", "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Robb Diehl, Ph.D.", "url": "https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/robb-diehl", "identifier": { "@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "orcid", "value": "0000-0001-9141-1734" } }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aaron Johnston, Ph.D.", "url": "https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/aaron-johnston", "identifier": { "@type": "PropertyValue", "propertyID": "orcid", "value": "0000-0003-4659-0504" } } ], "description": [ { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Partners: This ongoing study was facilitated through collaborations among the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, University of Wyoming, The Nature Conservancy, BluEarth Renewables, Invenergy, and PacifiCorp" }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "2: Using portable biological radar, researchers investigated whether flying animals reorient and descend towards solar energy facilities in southern California." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Lead USGS scientist: Aaron Johnston (ajohnston@usgs.gov)" }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Developing capabilities to detect flying animals offshore: Researchers will be advancing biological radar technology so that it may be deployed on buoys in the Great Lakes. The project will overcome challenges of operating radar on open water by compensating for platform motion, coping with unwanted radar signals from waves and sea spray, discriminating between insects and birds or bats, and weatherizing equipment. The ultimate goals of this project are two-fold: 1) to gather baseline data on bird and bat abundance and behavior before the construction of wind energy facilities to inform citing decisions and help forecast collision risk and, 2) provide wildlife managers and energy developers pre-construction data for comparison with post-construction data to learn more about how these developments influence bird and bat behavior. Addressing the technical issues of collecting radar data in the Great Lakes will also have applications to ocean environments." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Lead USGS scientist: Robb Diehl (rhdiehl@usgs.gov)" }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Do animals perceive utility-scale solar photovoltaic facilities as large water bodies? A test of the Lake Effect Hypothesis: It is thought that water and solar panels polarize light in a similar way causing birds in flight to confuse large ground-mounted solar arrays for water bodies, which they then attempt to use as places to rest or feed. This proposed phenomenon is referred as the Lake Effect Hypothesis and is suspected to contribute to bird fatalities, especially of aquatic species, associated with utility-scale solar energy facilities in the desert Southwest. This research project investigated the extent that birds in flight exhibit behavior consistent with perception of large solar facilities as water bodies, alter the direction of their flight toward those facilities, and succumbed when attempting to land on solar panels or other facility structure. Researchers approached this project in three ways." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Assessing avian collision-risk for offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico: This project will deploy biological radar on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research vessel as it conducts biological surveys in the Gulf of Mexico in areas that overlap with those slated for offshore wind energy development. The radar will gather data on bird abundance and behavior throughout the continental shelf area during fall migration when birds are known to cross the Gulf by the hundreds of millions. This project will serve as pilot study and equipment \u2018stress test\u2019 for a longer-term project with similar goals. In that study, five biological radars will be deployed on oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico continuously for four years." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Below are summaries of current research projects at the intersection of renewable energy and wildlife conservation." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Partners and Collaborators: This study is facilitated through USGS collaborations with Bard College, Western Ecosystems Technology, Inc., California Energy Commission, First Solar, NextEra Energy, 8minuteenergy, Duke Energy, NRG Energy, and Recurrent Energy." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Partners: This study is facilitated through USGS collaborations with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Effects of wind-energy development on pronghorn: Pronghorn are emblematic and endemic to western North America, where they have high ecological, cultural, and economic importance. Wyoming contains more than 50% of their historical habitat and is experiencing rapid development of wind energy in critical pronghorn habitat. Although negative effects of oil and gas development have been demonstrated on other ungulate species, it is important to understand whether differences in infrastructure and operation of wind-energy facilities elicit unique responses by pronghorn. Researchers are tracking movements of female pronghorn using GPS-tracking devices near and within wind facilities in Wyoming from pre-construction to operation to study their effects on pronghorn habitat selection, migration, and population dynamics. In this study, pronghorn nearest to wind turbines have avoided facilities under construction in the summer and operational turbines in the winter. Pronghorn have migrated through wind-energy facilities but moved more quickly when near wind turbines during spring and reduced their use of areas around turbines during seasonal migrations. Current research is focused on understanding how wind turbines affect decisions to migrate by pronghorn. Pronghorn are known to have larger and more unpredictable movements than other ungulates in North America, which underscores the importance of long-term tracking data to understand effects of wind facilities." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Research conducted by the USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK) and our partners assess the risks solar and wind energy facilities pose to bird and bats and assist wildlife managers and the private energy sector in testing approaches that may make renewable energy facilities safer for flying animals." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Partners: This study is facilitated through USGS collaborations among PacifiCorp, Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department" }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Renewable energy development, such as solar and wind energy, is growing in the United States and is expected to continue expanding for the foreseeable future. However, renewable energy infrastructure can be a risk to some wildlife including threatened and endangered species. Wildlife managers and energy developers need wildlife risks to be assessed and effective strategies to mitigate those risks. To assist with these needs, the USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center and our partners are conducting solar and wind energy development research in California, Wyoming, the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Great Lakes to 1) assess potential risks that land-based and offshore renewable energy development poses to birds, bats, and ungulates, and 2) identify methods to reduce those risks." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "1: To test bird responses to objects that polarize light, scientists first investigated whether solar panels polarize light in a way that mimics how water polarizes light. They then tested the attraction of birds to various surfaces painted with acrylic paints that do or do not polarize light similarly to water." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Partners and Collaborators: This study is facilitated through USGS collaborations with U.S. Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and University of Oklahoma." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Solar and wind energy are becoming more economically feasible, and their development and use have rapidly expanded during the past two decades in the United States. However, there have been documented cases of bird and bat fatalities associated with renewable energy that raise concerns about the risks that energy facilities pose to flying animals." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "Assessing effectiveness of painting wind turbine blades to make wind energy safer for birds: This research will involve painting one of three wind turbine blades black and assessing if this simple, low-cost modification to wind turbines can decrease bird mortalities. It is thought that the single black blade will provide a visual cue to birds that the airspace is obstructed causing birds to avoid those spaces and being struck by wind turbine blades. In 2020, researchers in Norway conducted a similar study and the results suggested that this approach could be successful. However, the study was small (only 4 of the 68 turbines used in the study had their blades painted) and thus needs to be repeated with a larger study that includes more species to verify the results. This study will test the effect of painting a single blade using 36 turbines at a site in Wyoming containing 158 turbines that stand over 250\u2019 (~76 m) tall. This study will be conducted for several years." }, { "@type": "TextObject", "text": "3: Using five photovoltaic solar energy sites in southern California, researchers evaluated whether photovoltaic solar energy facilities are associated with increased mortality of aquatic bird species\u2014a pattern that has been previously documented in this region." } ], "funder": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center", "url": "https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock" }, "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "marine renewable energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Information Systems" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Bats" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Aeroecology" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Landscape Ecology" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Terrestrial Ecosystems" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "wind energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "pronghorn" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Energy Development" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Adaptive Management" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Science Technology" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wind Energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Biology" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Energy and Wildlife" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Environmental Health" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "wind turbines" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Water" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wildlife and Terrestrial Species" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "solar energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Migration and Corridors" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Terrestrial Mammals" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Renewable energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Remote Sensing" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "offshore renewable energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "birds and renewable energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Threats" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Methods and Analysis" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Solar Energy" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Decision Science" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Geology" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Ecosystems" }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Migratory Birds" } ]
}
