Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science & Engineering, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA.
Environ Pollut. 2024 Nov 1;360:124709. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124709. Epub 2024 Aug 10.
A global increase in offshore windfarm development is critical to our renewable energy future. Yet, widespread construction plans have generated substantial concern for impacts to co-occurring organisms and the communities they form. Pile driving construction, prominent in offshore windfarm development, produces among the highest amplitude sounds in the ocean creating widespread concern for a diverse array of taxa. However, studies addressing ecologically key species are generally lacking and most research is disparate, failing to integrate across response types (e.g., behavior, physiology, and ecological interactions), particularly in situ. The lack of integrative field studies presents major challenges to understand or mitigate actual impacts of offshore wind development. Here, we examined critical behavioral, physiological, and antipredator impacts of actual pile driving construction on the giant sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus). Benthic taxa including bivalves are of particular concern because they are sound-sensitive, cannot move appreciable distances away from the stressor, and support livelihoods as one of the world's most economically and socially important fisheries. Overall, pile driving sound impacted scallops across a series of behavioral and physiological assays. Sound-exposed scallops consistently reduced their valve opening (22%), resulting in lowered mantle water oxygen levels available to the gills. Repeated and rapid valve adductions led to a 56% increase in metabolic rates relative to pre-exposure baselines. Consequently, in response to predator stimuli, sound-exposed scallops displayed a suite of significantly weaker antipredator behaviors including fewer swimming events and shorter time-to-exhaustion. These results show aquatic construction activities can induce metabolic and ecologically relevant changes in a key benthic animal. As offshore windfarm construction accelerates globally, our field-based study highlights that spatial overlap with benthic taxa may cause substantial metabolic changes, alter important fisheries resources, and ultimately could lead to increased predation.
全球范围内海上风电场的开发对于我们的可再生能源未来至关重要。然而，广泛的建设计划引起了人们对伴生生物及其形成的群落的影响的极大关注。打桩施工是海上风电场开发中的突出问题，它在海洋中产生的声音幅度最高，引起了对各种生物类群的广泛关注。然而，目前缺乏针对生态关键物种的研究，而且大多数研究都是分散的，无法整合各种响应类型（例如行为、生理和生态相互作用），特别是在现场。缺乏综合的实地研究，使得我们难以理解或减轻海上风电场开发的实际影响。在这里，我们研究了实际打桩施工对巨型扇贝（Placopecten magellanicus）的关键行为、生理和抗捕食影响。包括双壳类在内的底栖生物类群特别令人关注，因为它们对声音敏感，不能远离压力源移动相当大的距离，并且作为世界上最具经济和社会重要性的渔业之一，支撑着生计。总体而言，打桩声对一系列行为和生理测试中的扇贝产生了影响。暴露在声音中的扇贝 consistently 减少了它们的阀 opening（22%），导致鳃可利用的mantle water oxygen levels 降低。反复而快速的阀合导致代谢率相对于暴露前基线增加了 56%。因此，在受到捕食者刺激时，暴露在声音中的扇贝表现出一系列明显较弱的抗捕食行为，包括游泳事件减少和耗尽时间缩短。这些结果表明，水上施工活动会在关键的底栖动物中引起代谢和生态相关的变化。随着海上风电场建设在全球范围内加速，我们的实地研究强调了与底栖生物类群的空间重叠可能会导致大量的代谢变化，改变重要的渔业资源，最终可能导致捕食增加。
