Biology Department, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
Wildlife Research and Monitoring Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 1Z8, Canada.
Conserv Biol. 2021 Feb;35(1):227-238. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13554. Epub 2020 Jul 3.
Renewable energy sources, such as wind energy, are essential tools for reducing the causes of climate change, but wind turbines can pose a collision risk for bats. To date, the population-level effects of wind-related mortality have been estimated for only 1 bat species. To estimate temporal trends in bat abundance, we considered wind turbines as opportunistic sampling tools for flying bats (analogous to fishing nets), where catch per unit effort (carcass abundance per monitored turbine) is a proxy for aerial abundance of bats, after accounting for seasonal variation in activity. We used a large, standardized data set of records of bat carcasses from 594 turbines in southern Ontario, Canada, and corrected these data to account for surveyor efficiency and scavenger removal. We used Bayesian hierarchical models to estimate temporal trends in aerial abundance of bats and to explore the effect of spatial factors, including landscape features associated with bat habitat (e.g., wetlands, croplands, and forested lands), on the number of mortalities for each species. The models showed a rapid decline in the abundance of 4 species in our study area; declines in capture of carcasses over 7 years ranged from 65% (big brown bat [Eptesicus fuscus]) to 91% (silver-haired bat [Lasionycteris noctivagans]). Estimated declines were independent of the effects of mitigation (increasing wind speed at which turbines begin to generate electricity from 3.5 to 5.5 m/s), which significantly reduced but did not eliminate bat mortality. Late-summer mortality of hoary (Lasiurus cinereus), eastern red (Lasiurus borealis), and silver-haired bats was predicted by woodlot cover, and mortality of big brown bats decreased with increasing elevation. These landscape predictors of bat mortality can inform the siting of future wind energy operations. Our most important result is the apparent decline in abundance of four common species of bat in the airspace, which requires further investigation.
可再生能源，如风能，是减少气候变化原因的重要工具，但风力涡轮机会对蝙蝠构成碰撞风险。迄今为止，只有一种蝙蝠物种的与风相关的死亡率的种群水平影响得到了估计。为了估计蝙蝠丰度的时间趋势，我们将风力涡轮机视为飞行蝙蝠的机会性采样工具（类似于渔网），在考虑到季节性活动变化后，单位努力的捕获量（每台监测涡轮机的尸体丰度）是蝙蝠空中丰度的代表。我们使用了来自加拿大安大略省南部 594 台风力涡轮机的大量标准化蝙蝠尸体记录数据集，并对这些数据进行了校正，以说明调查员的效率和清道夫的清除情况。我们使用贝叶斯层次模型来估计蝙蝠空中丰度的时间趋势，并探讨了空间因素的影响，包括与蝙蝠栖息地相关的景观特征（例如湿地、农田和林地）对每种物种死亡数量的影响。模型显示，在我们的研究区域中，有 4 个物种的数量迅速下降；7 年来，捕获尸体的数量下降了 65%（大褐蝙蝠[Eptesicus fuscus]）至 91%（银毛蝙蝠[Lasionycteris noctivagans]）。估计的下降与缓解措施（将涡轮机开始发电的风速从 3.5 米/秒增加到 5.5 米/秒）无关，这些措施虽然显著减少但并未消除蝙蝠死亡。毛尾（Lasiurus cinereus）、东部红（Lasiurus borealis）和银毛蝙蝠的夏末死亡率与林地覆盖率有关，而大褐蝙蝠的死亡率则随海拔升高而降低。这些蝙蝠死亡率的景观预测因子可以为未来的风能作业选址提供信息。我们最重要的结果是空中四种常见蝙蝠物种的丰度明显下降，这需要进一步调查。
