Diehl Robert H, Valdez Ernest W, Preston Todd M, Wellik Michael J, Cryan Paul M
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America.
USGS, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2016 Jul 27;11(7):e0158115. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158115. eCollection 2016.
Solar power towers produce electrical energy from sunlight at an industrial scale. Little is known about the effects of this technology on flying animals and few methods exist for automatically detecting or observing wildlife at solar towers and other tall anthropogenic structures. Smoking objects are sometimes observed co-occurring with reflected, concentrated light ("solar flux") in the airspace around solar towers, but the identity and origins of such objects can be difficult to determine. In this observational pilot study at the world's largest solar tower facility, we assessed the efficacy of using radar, surveillance video, and insect trapping to detect and observe animals flying near the towers. During site visits in May and September 2014, we monitored the airspace surrounding towers and observed insects, birds, and bats under a variety of environmental and operational conditions. We detected and broadly differentiated animals or objects moving through the airspace generally using radar and near solar towers using several video imaging methods. Video revealed what appeared to be mostly small insects burning in the solar flux. Also, we occasionally detected birds flying in the solar flux but could not accurately identify birds to species or the types of insects and small objects composing the vast majority of smoking targets. Insect trapping on the ground was somewhat effective at sampling smaller insects around the tower, and presence and abundance of insects in the traps generally trended with radar and video observations. Traps did not tend to sample the larger insects we sometimes observed flying in the solar flux or found dead on the ground beneath the towers. Some of the methods we tested (e.g., video surveillance) could be further assessed and potentially used to automatically detect and observe flying animals in the vicinity of solar towers to advance understanding about their effects on wildlife.
太阳能塔以工业规模利用阳光产生电能。人们对这项技术对飞行中的动物的影响知之甚少，而且几乎没有什么方法可以自动检测或观察太阳能塔及其他高大人工建筑周围的野生动物。有时会观察到在太阳能塔周围空域中，冒烟物体与反射的集中光（“太阳通量”）同时出现，但此类物体的身份和来源可能难以确定。在对世界上最大的太阳能塔设施进行的这项观察性试点研究中，我们评估了使用雷达、监控视频和诱虫器来检测和观察塔附近飞行的动物的效果。在2014年5月和9月的实地考察期间，我们监测了塔周围的空域，并在各种环境和运行条件下观察昆虫、鸟类和蝙蝠。我们一般使用雷达检测并大致区分在空域中移动的动物或物体，在太阳能塔附近则使用多种视频成像方法。视频显示，在太阳通量中燃烧的似乎大多是小昆虫。此外，我们偶尔检测到有鸟类在太阳通量中飞行，但无法准确识别鸟类的种类，也无法确定构成绝大多数冒烟目标的昆虫和小物体的类型。地面诱虫器在采集塔周围较小昆虫样本方面有一定效果，诱虫器中昆虫的出现情况和数量一般与雷达和视频观测结果趋势一致。诱虫器往往采集不到我们有时观察到在太阳通量中飞行或在塔下地面上发现死亡的较大昆虫样本。我们测试的一些方法（如视频监控）可进一步评估，并有可能用于自动检测和观察太阳能塔附近飞行的动物，以增进对其对野生动物影响的了解。
