3 research outputs found
The large scale impact of offshore wind farm structures on pelagic primary productivity in the southern North Sea
The increasing demand for renewable energy is projected to result in a
40-fold increase in offshore wind electricity in the European Union by 2030.
Despite a great number of local impact studies for selected marine populations,
the regional ecosystem impacts of offshore wind farm structures are not yet
well assessed nor understood. Our study investigates whether the accumulation
of epifauna, dominated by the filter feeder Mytilus edulis (blue mussel), on
turbine structures affects pelagic primary productivity and ecosystem
functioning in the southern North Sea. We estimate the anthropogenically
increased potential distribution based on the current projections of turbine
locations and reported patterns of M. edulis settlement. This distribution is
integrated through the Modular Coupling System for Shelves and Coasts to
state-of-the-art hydrodynamic and ecosystem models. Our simulations reveal
non-negligible potential changes in regional annual primary productivity of up
to 8% within the offshore wind farm area, and induced maximal increases of the
same magnitude in daily productivity also far from the wind farms. Our setup
and modular coupling are effective tools for system scale studies of other
environmental changes arising from large-scale offshore wind-farming such as
ocean physics and distributions of pelagic top predators.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, re-revised manuscript submitted to Hydrobiologi
Challenges to Collaboration in International Research: Lessons from Terrestrial Laser Scanning
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Simulated net primary productivity (NPP) in the southern North Sea 2003-2013 forced by epistructural and epibenthic reconstructed blue mussel filtration
The increasing demand for renewable energy is projected to result in a 40-fold increase in offshore wind electricity in the European Union by 2030. Despite a great number of local impact studies for selected marine populations, the regional ecosystem impacts of offshore wind farm structures are not yet well assessed nor understood. The study resulting from this dataset investigates whether the accumulation of epifauna, dominated by the filter feeder Mytilus edulis (blue mussel), on turbine structures affects pelagic primary production in the southern North Sea