First paragraph: Wind turbines are, it appears, everywhere. Even if you can't see some on the horizon on your way into work every day, it is hard to miss the continual news coverage of new developments. Clearly, efforts to move away from fossil fuels are – at least in part – working, and from the perspective of combating climate change, this must surely be a good thing.  However, much of the news coverage of turbines highlights negatives such as a perceived degradation of the landscape, or their impacts on wildlife. There is good cause for concern in this regard, particularly with respect to wildlife.https://theconversation.com/wind-turbines-arent-quite-apex-predators-but-the-truth-is-far-more-interesting-10648

Minderman, Jeroen

English

First paragraph: Wind turbines are, it appears, everywhere. Even if you can't see some on the horizon on your way into work every day, it is hard to miss the continual news coverage of new developments. Clearly, efforts to move away from fossil fuels are – at least in part – working, and from the perspective of combating climate change, this must surely be a good thing.  However, much of the news coverage of turbines highlights negatives such as a perceived degradation of the landscape, or their impacts on wildlife. There is good cause for concern in this regard, particularly with respect to wildlife

Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)

11/15/2018 Wind turbines aren't quite 'apex predators', but the truth is far more interestinghttps://theconversation.com/wind-turbines-arent-quite-apex-predators-but-the-truth-is-far-more-interesting-106480 1/3AuthorJeroen MindermanResearch Fellow, Biological andEnvironmental Sciences, University ofStirlingAcademic rigour, journalistic flairWind turbines aren’t quite ‘apex predators’, but the truth is farmore interestingNovember 7, 2018 2.47pm GMTWind turbines are, it appears, everywhere. Even if you can’t see some on the horizon onyour way into work every day, it is hard to miss the continual news coverage of newdevelopments. Clearly, efforts to move away from fossil fuels are – at least in part –working, and from the perspective of combating climate change, this must surely be agood thing.However, much of the news coverage of turbines highlights negatives such as a perceiveddegradation of the landscape, or their impacts on wildlife. There is good cause for concernin this regard, particularly with respect to wildlife.Reams of published scientific papers show that birds and bats can be killed (sometimes inrelatively large numbers) by colliding with the spinning blades. Clearly, where turbines are poorlyplaced or where rare or vulnerable species are affected, this is a problem. Images of dead birds of preyor rare vagrant birds under wind turbines are easily turned into emotive and sensational news stories,and are terrible PR for the wind industry.At first glance, a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution appears to add to the evidence ofwidespread lethal effects. The authors, a team based at the Indian Institute of Science and led byMaria Thaker, make the attention-grabbing observation that the effects of wind turbines are “akin toadding an apex predator to natural communities”. Apex predators are animals right at the top of theirfood chains, like killer whales or tigers. Adding an “apex predator” surely means that these man-mademetal mincing-machines kill off birds and bats in large numbers, right?Creatures great and smallWhile it certainly is true that collision with turbines can cause direct mortality, what the new researchactually shows is far more interesting and complex than this. The result of many years of datacollection, the work shows that through the (direct or indirect) effects on birds of prey, wind turbinesBlue Planet Studio / shutterstockNovember 7, 2018 2.47pm GMTWind turbines aren’t quite ‘apex predators’, but the truth is farmore interesting11/15/2018 Wind turbines aren't quite 'apex predators', but the truth is far more interestinghttps://theconversation.com/wind-turbines-arent-quite-apex-predators-but-the-truth-is-far-more-interesting-106480 2/3can have broader and more subtle effects on the wider ecosystem – including on some unexpectedspecies.Specifically, they looked at a lizard that lives only in the Western Ghatsmountains of India, the superb fan-throated lizard (Sarada superba).They found that the number of lizards was considerably higher in areaswith turbines installed compared to otherwise similar areas withoutturbines.In areas with turbines, they also found fewer birds of prey such asbuzzards and kites (the lizards’ main predators), and a lower frequencyof attacks on lizards. Putting the two together, the authors propose thatthe presence of turbines is associated with lower predator activity, andthus higher prey numbers.In some ways, it may indeed seem as if wind turbines act similarly to the introduction of an “apexpredator” into the food chain: by reducing the number and activity of intermediate predators such asbirds of prey, predation pressure on smaller animals may be reduced. However, it is of courseimportant to stress that almost all biological predators are, in the end, limited by the availability ofprey. By contrast, turbines are not limited in this way and will continue to be present regardless ofwhether their “prey” goes locally extinct.The superb large fan throated lizard has only been classedas a separate species since 2016. Krishna Khan, CC BY-SAThe Western Ghats run parallel to the west coast of India for 1,600km. Vihang Ghalsasi / Shutterstock11/15/2018 Wind turbines aren't quite 'apex predators', but the truth is far more interestinghttps://theconversation.com/wind-turbines-arent-quite-apex-predators-but-the-truth-is-far-more-interesting-106480 3/3Wind farms Birds of prey Wind turbinesPerhaps more important is the non-lethal effects on the wider ecosystem that is highlighted by Thakerand colleagues. By reducing predation or reducing the activity of predators, the physiology, behaviourand population density of prey populations can be changed in unpredictable and subtle ways.Looking beyond the collision casualtiesWhat this work really highlights is that wind farms can have effects that are indirect or notimmediately visible. This poses a huge challenge for impact assessments and survey work. Perhapsunderstandably, many assessments of wind turbines focus on vulnerable species, which tend to be thebirds and bats most at risk of direct collision. Similarly, where carried out, post-constructionmonitoring often focuses on collision casualties. These are things that can be directly measured orcounted, over clearly defined periods.By contrast, assessing the longer-term effects on indirectly impacted species such as lizards takes a lotmore time and money. Unfortunately, this luxury is typically not available for commercial impactassessment studies. What is more, it is likely to be significantly harder to convince regulators thatimpact assessments should be broadened to consider wider ecosystems, particularly where thesecannot be immediately seen or counted as dead animals.At least in the UK, there is some evidence that consideration of such “synergistic” effects ofdevelopments is now increasingly expected in impact assessments. While this is encouraging, morework along the lines of study by Thaker and colleagues is needed to build up a better understanding ofthe extent and importance of similar effects in different areas. From a pragmatic perspective, it maywell be that in the future impact assessments will move away from focusing on direct collisionmortality and towards more targeted and in-depth assessments of “downstream” ecological impacts.Found this article useful? A gift of £20/month helps deliver knowledge-based, ethical journalism.Make a donation 

Wind turbines aren't quite 'apex predators', but the truth is far more interesting

Stirling Online Research Repository

http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/28249/1/Minderman-Conversation-2018.pdf

Wind turbines aren't quite 'apex predators', but the truth is far more interesting

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)

Stirling Online Research Repository