大丰风电场建设对盐城自然保护区的生态影响分析

研究了大丰风电场一期、二期工程对盐城沿海湿地珍禽国家级自然保护区的生态影响.结果表明,在自然保护区实验区内建风电场会改变自然保护区生态结构和功能,使生物量减少,鸟类栖息地丧失,物种多样性下降,景观破碎化.提出了对策措施,以降低由于风电场的建设对自然保护区造成的生态影响.     

风电场风机噪声监测方法初探

据现场实测,风电场300 m范围内社会噪声测值水平较低,且昼夜变化较小,对风电场背景噪声贡献不大;风机停运时背景噪声值随风速递增,二者之间存在较好的多项式回归性。在测得风机运行时噪声值和测点风速的情况下,根据回归方程式得到背景噪声,当风机运行时测得的噪声值与背景噪声之差大于1.5 dB(A)时,可以运用噪声叠加原理计算风机噪声,并且其计算误差在可接受范围之内。     

镇江市鸟类生物多样性调查与评价

对镇江市城市居住区、农田保护区、城市园林、城郊山林和河流湿地等5种生境冬、夏2季鸟类多样性进行了调查研究.结果表明,5种生境夏季鸟类群落的各种指数均呈现不同的变化规律;城市保护区、农田保护区、城市园林鸟类优势种为[树]麻雀;河流湿地和城郊山林鸟类群落冬夏季在物种水平和科属水平上拥有较大的多样性,群落结构最稳定;城市居住区和城市园林鸟类群落冬季的密度较大,同时良好的栖息地对鸟类的生存起着决定性的影响.     

风电场噪声影响模拟方法研究

以浙江沿海某海岛风电场为例,在做好风电场噪声监测数据质量保证的基础上,分析风电场噪声等效声级和距离的关系模型,运用GIS的空间分析功能对研究区的噪声影响进行预测和叠加分析,模拟得到10 m/s风速时风电场噪声的噪声空间影响分布,并提出风机在不同运行工况时风电场噪声的模拟方法和防治措施。该研究为风电场噪声影响分析和管理部门提供参考。     

欧洲三分之一鸟类濒临灭绝 八成栖息地境况不佳

<正>据《卫报》报道,根据近期揭露的《欧盟自然状况报告》内容显示,受人类农业活动的影响,欧洲三分之一的鸟类目前濒临灭绝,生态系统已经很难应对人类活动的影响。《欧盟自然状况报告》全面研究了欧洲野生动物和自然栖息地的现状。报告收集整理了2007—2012年间27个欧盟国家的大量数据,并指出自1980年以来,云雀和斑鸠等过去一些常见鸟类的数量正急剧下降。其中,斑鸠的数量急剧下降或     

射阳港区规划对盐城自然保护区的生态影响研究

结合工程特点、港区规划范围自然保护区生态环境现状,识别和分析射阳港区规划实施后对盐城自然保护区的生态影响。结果表明,底栖生物丧失,浮游生物和鱼类减少,船舶溢油事故及建设和运营期三废的排放导致海域生态环境质量下降;溢油使鸟类生境遭到破坏,保护区结构和功能受阻等。提出相应的环保措施,最大限度减轻规划实施后对自然保护区的影响。     

乌江下游水电开发对陆生生态系统影响分析评价

为研究水电梯级开发对当地陆生生态系统的影响程度,选择中国西南地区大型河流--乌江下游沿河至河口段为典型研究区,于2018年2-10月,采用资料查询、现场调查、遥感解译的方法,对当地陆生生态系统进行影响后评价。结果表明,梯级水电建成后,水库水面面积为建设前的2.60倍,森林、灌丛植被面积分别增加了205.89,366.04 km^(2),增幅分别为1.29%,2.30%,总植被生物量增加了195.14万t,增幅为2.82%;两梯级水电站建设对评价范围内植物物种多样性没有造成明显不良影响;麻阳河保护区内黑叶猴种群数量自2014-2021年,增长近30只,增幅约5%。水电梯级开发建设对评价范围内陆生生态系统没有造成明显不良影响,生态系统仍然处于良好循环之中,且存在顺向演替趋势。研究结论可为环境管理部门今后判断河流水电梯级开发对陆生生态系统的实际影响提供决策参考。     

新疆公路建设对自然保护区的影响及协调发展对策

公路运输在国民经济发展和提高人民生活水平中发挥着重要的作用,在今后相当长的一段时期内,新疆交通基础设施建设将会呈现快速发展的趋势。新疆地域辽阔,资源丰富,也是大量野生动植物资源的主要栖息地,加快自然保护区的建设已成为生态建设的当务之急。本文分别介绍了新疆公路和自然保护的发展,分析了公路建设对自然保护区的影响,提出了公路建设和自然保护区协调发展的对策。     

海洋风电场水下噪声评估与管理研究

总结了海洋风电场建设中水下噪声的主要类型与声学特性,基于国内外水下噪声对海洋生物影响的最新研究成果,分析了海洋风电场噪声对生态环境的可能影响,尤其是近岸海域海洋风电施工期冲击式打桩噪声对海洋生物的影响。在此基础上,参考《海上风电工程环境影响评价技术规范》的相关内容,提出了海洋风电场水下噪声测量与评估方法,以及控制与降低噪声的措施建议。     

土地利用景观格局对信江水质的影响

利用GIS空间分析与统计方法,从景观尺度和类型尺度两方面分析了流域景观格局空间分异对河流高锰酸盐指数(CODMn)、氨氮、总氮(TN)、化学需氧量(CODCr)的影响。信江流域的景观组成对CODMn、氨氮、TN、CODCr浓度存在显著影响,耕地和建设用地的面积比例与各项指标浓度间存在显著正相关,林地与各指标浓度存在显著负相关。各项指标在流域上游变化不大,而在流域的下游变化显著。从景观尺度上看,流域景观以少数大斑块为主或同一类型的斑块高度连接时,河流中CODMn、氨氮、TN、CODCr浓度较低,水质较好。从流域类型尺度上看,各类型的景观结构对河流中CODMn、氨氮、TN、CODCr浓度影响不同,建设用地以及耕地的集中大面积彼此相临的连片分布会导致河流中CODMn、氨氮、TN、CODCr等浓度的升高,而林地则表现出相反的效应。     

Differential recovery of habitat use by birds after wind farm installation: A multi-year comparison

Onshore wind farms remain one of the most widely used technologies for the production of renewable energy. These are known to affect birds through disturbance or collision. Most research focus on the impact of wind farms on raptors or other large bird species, especially those of conservation concern. However, limited information exists on the effect of wind farms on small birds. Recovery of large versus small bird populations impacted by wind farms is also largely unstudied. A reason for this is the lack of long-term datasets based on standardized, systematic assessments. We monitored birds in the vicinity of a wind farm in an upland habitat in southern Spain (Malaga province), immediately after installation and 6.5 years post-construction. During both study periods, we observed 11 raptor and 38 non-raptor species (including 30 passerines). We found differences in recovery rates between raptors and non-raptors. Raptors showed an upturn in numbers but non-raptor abundance fell significantly.Greater attention should be paid to the recovery of wildlife after initial impact assessments than at present. This study confirms that regulatory authorities and developers should consider the likely impacts of wind farms on small bird populations. Mitigation measures focused particularly on non-raptor species should be considered and implemented as a means to reduce these negative effects.     

Changes in bird species composition after a wind farm installation: A case study in South America

Facing the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the use of wind energy has been significantly increasing worldwide. Wind farms are known to present low environmental impact and their impact on bird fauna has been the most studied and discussed. In this study, we evaluated the composition of bird communities and changes in land use during three phases of wind farm development: pre-construction, construction and operation. Secondary data was obtained on bird communities, provided by the wildlife monitoring report submitted to the state environment agency of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The total number of species recorded for all phases of wind farm construction was 163 species. One hundred species were present during all phases, and 20 were recorded during at least two phases, 32 species were exclusive to the pre-construction phase, four species were recorded only during the construction phase and seven recorded during the operation phase. The evaluation of bird community structure revealed that the pre-construction phase differed from the 4 years of operation, indicating that an impact on bird species' composition is evident, but more detailed and longer surveys are needed to confirm this trend. The bird community responded to landscape changes, mainly due to the reduction of native and exotic forest cover, in areas affected by wind farms installation and operation, in both, species' composition and environmental guilds. Analysis of secondary data allows us to evaluate which changes may have resulted from the implantation of the wind energy industry to the regional bird fauna, and our findings demonstrates tha the changes associated with the construction and operation of this wind farm have negatively affected the bird community.     

Biodiversity and bird surveys in Finnish environmental impact assessments and follow-up monitoring

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) that are applied in the planning phases of large land-use and construction projects are aimed at aiding decision-making and mitigating significant environmental impacts. In light of the global biodiversity crisis, conducting high-quality biodiversity impact assessments is important, as biodiversity information, among other factors, has the potential to influence how projects will be implemented in the end. We investigated the biodiversity and bird surveys conducted and the number of bird species of conservation concern in peat extraction and wind farm projects to which an EIA was applied to in 1995–2016 in Finland and compared whether these factors differed between the project types and between implemented and unimplemented projects. We also studied the availability of follow-up monitoring data of biodiversity impacts within the two project types. The number of nationally threatened breeding birds was significantly lower in implemented than in unimplemented peat extraction projects. The overall probability of being implemented was significantly negatively associated with the year the EIA began for both project types. All permitted peat extraction projects and 22% of wind farm projects conducted post-construction biodiversity monitoring; however, only some projects enabled before-after comparisons. Our results are in line with earlier findings that demonstrate the difficulty of showing the direct impacts of biodiversity information on EIA decision-making and to what extent it is related to project approval or rejection. The role of follow-up monitoring in the EIA and project development could also be strengthened.     

Local versus landscape spatial influence on biodiversity: a case study across five European industrialized areas

Land use change—mostly habitat loss and fragmentation—has been recognized as one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. According to the habitat amount hypothesis, these phenomena are mostly driven by the habitat area effect. As a result, species richness is a function of both the extent of suitable habitats and their availability in the surrounding landscape, irrespective of the dimension and isolation of patches of suitable habitat. In this context, we tested how the extent of natural areas, selected as proxies of suitable habitats for biodiversity, influences species richness in highly anthropogenic landscapes. We defined five circular sampling areas of 5 km radius, including both natural reserves and anthropogenic land uses, centred in five major industrial sites in France, Italy and Germany. We monitored different biodiversity indicators for both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including breeding birds, diurnal butterflies, grassland vegetation, odonata, amphibians, aquatic plants and benthic diatoms. We studied the response of the different indicators to the extent of natural land uses in the sampling area (local effect) and in the surrounding landscape (landscape effect), identified as a peripheral ring encircling the sampling area. Results showed a positive response of five out of seven biodiversity indicators, with aquatic plants and odonata responding positively to the local effect, while birds, vegetation and diatoms showed a positive response to the landscape effect. Diatoms also showed a significant combined response to both effects. We conclude that surrounding landscapes act as important biodiversity sources, increasing the local biodiversity in highly anthropogenic contexts.     

When speed matters: The importance of flight speed in an avian collision risk model

Renewable energy continues to grow globally, and the number of offshore wind farms is set to increase. Whilst wind energy developments provide energy security and reduced carbon budgets, they may impact bird populations through collision mortality, habitat modification and avoidance. To date, avian collision mortality has received the most attention and collision risk models have been developed to estimate the potential mortality caused by wind turbines. The utility of these models relies not only on their underlying assumptions but also on the data available to ensure the predictions are informative. Using a stochastic collision risk model (sCRM; based on the Band collision risk model) as an example, we explore the importance of bird flight speed and consider how the assumptions of the model influence the sensitivity to flight speed. Furthermore we explore the consequences of using site-specific GPS-derived flight speed rather than a standard generic value, with Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus as an example, and consider how this generic value is currently used. We found that the model was most sensitive to the parameters of bird density, non-avoidance rate and percentage of birds at collision risk height, as well as bird flight speed. Using site-specific flight speed data derived from GPS tags rather than a standard value reduced the predicted number of collisions. We highlight that within the model, both the estimation of the probability of collision (PColl) and the flux of birds are sensitive to the bird flight speed; this sensitivity acts in opposite directions but the two do not necessarily balance out. Therefore, when the sCRM is used as generally done, there is little difference in collision estimates if airspeeds (bird flight speed relative to air through which it is moving) are used rather than groundspeeds (bird flight speed relative to ground). Estimates of seabird collision rates in relation to offshore wind farms are impacting future offshore wind development. By using site specific flight speed estimates and, accounting for different speeds in relation to wind direction, we demonstrate that cumulative collision estimates can be affected, highlighting the need for more representative flight speed data and where possible site-specific data.     

Rebuilding Migratory Flyways Using Directed Conditional Covering

There has been much recent research on site selection for species preservation, although most of this research has focused on terrestrial plant and animal species. There is increasing evidence that lack of suitable habitat for migratory birds is contributing to their diminishing numbers. We extend the literature of site selection with a specific application to migratory birds. We develop reserve planning models, based on the novel idea of Directed Conditional Covering, to identify superior configurations of locations to be included in migratory flyways.     

Avian collision risk models for wind energy impact assessments

With the increasing global development of wind energy, collision risk models (CRMs) are routinely used to assess the potential impacts of wind turbines on birds. We reviewed and compared the avian collision risk models currently available in the scientific literature, exploring aspects such as the calculation of a collision probability, inclusion of stationary components e.g. the tower, angle of approach and uncertainty. 10 models were cited in the literature and of these, all included a probability of collision of a single bird colliding with a wind turbine during passage through the rotor swept area, and the majority included a measure of the number of birds at risk. 7 out of the 10 models calculated the probability of birds colliding, whilst the remainder used a constant. We identified four approaches to calculate the probability of collision and these were used by others. 6 of the 10 models were deterministic and included the most frequently used models in the UK, with only 4 including variation or uncertainty in some way, the most recent using Bayesian methods. Despite their appeal, CRMs have their limitations and can be ‘data hungry’ as well as assuming much about bird movement and behaviour. As data become available, these assumptions should be tested to ensure that CRMs are functioning to adequately answer the questions posed by the wind energy sector.     

Framework for assessing impacts of pile-driving noise from offshore wind farm construction on a harbour seal population

Offshore wind farm developments may impact protected marine mammal populations, requiring appropriate assessment under the EU Habitats Directive. We describe a framework developed to assess population level impacts of disturbance from piling noise on a protected harbour seal population in the vicinity of proposed wind farm developments in NE Scotland. Spatial patterns of seal distribution and received noise levels are integrated with available data on the potential impacts of noise to predict how many individuals are displaced or experience auditory injury. Expert judgement is used to link these impacts to changes in vital rates and applied to population models that compare population changes under baseline and construction scenarios over a 25 year period. We use published data and hypothetical piling scenarios to illustrate how the assessment framework has been used to support environmental assessments, explore the sensitivity of the framework to key assumptions, and discuss its potential application to other populations of marine mammals.     

Life-cycle impacts of wind energy development on bird diversity in Norway

While wind energy remains a preferred source of renewable energy, understanding the full spectrum of impacts are vital to balance climate-related benefits against their costs to biodiversity. Environmental impact assessments often fail to assess cumulative effects at larger spatial scales. In this respect, life cycle assessments are better suited, but have to date mainly focused on greenhouse gas emissions and energy accounting. Here, we adapt a recent global life-cycle impact assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate collision, disturbance and habitat loss impacts of onshore wind energy development on bird species richness in Norway. The advantage of a local model for Norway is that it enables employing species distribution models to more accurately estimate the potential distribution area of species. This facilitates more realistic site- and species-specific assessments of potential impacts within a local scale but excludes habitat ranges outside Norway. Furthermore, a new characterization factor was developed for potential barrier effects. Larger onshore wind-power plants overall had greater site-specific potentially disappeared fractions (PDF) of species, while smaller plants were less efficiently located with greater impacts per GWh. Overall, Norwegian wind-power plants were sited least efficiently (PDF/GWh) regarding indirect habitat loss (2.186 × 10⁻⁹) and disturbance (1.219 × 10⁻⁹), followed by direct habitat loss (0.932 × 10⁻⁹), and finally collisions (0.040 × 10⁻⁹) and barriers (0.310 × 10⁻⁹). Vulnerability differed among bird groups with seabirds, raptors and waterfowl emerging as the most impacted groups (e.g. 5.143 × 10⁻⁹, 3.409 × 10⁻⁹ and 3.139 × 10⁻⁹ PDF/GWh for disturbance, respectively); highlighting the sympatric distribution of their habitats and the majority of Norway's onshore wind-power plants. Current practice has not succeeded in avoiding sites with higher impacts for birds, fuelling conflicts surrounding environmental concerns of onshore wind energy development in Norway. Operative LCA models can help decision-makers assessing localized life-cycle environmental impacts to support environmental-friendly wind energy production in specific regions.