Mortality of bats at wind turbines links to nocturnal insect migration?

Rydell, Jens; Bach, Lothar; Dubourg-Savage, Marie-Jo; Green, Martin A.; Rodrigues, Luísa; Hedenström, Anders

doi:10.1007/s10344-010-0444-3

Cited by 87 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(39 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Empirical data demonstrating the consistent presence and aggregation of insects at turbines during the night are lacking, but insects are known to foul turbine blades (38), be attracted to certain turbine paint colors (39), and migrate in large numbers during periods of bat fatality at turbines (40). In addition, bats have been observed foraging near turbines (4,34) or found dead beneath them with full stomachs (41,42), highlighting the plausibility of the feeding hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavior of bats at wind turbines

Cryan

Gorresen

Hein

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

167

222

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wind turbines are causing unprecedented numbers of bat fatalities. Many fatalities involve tree-roosting bats, but reasons for this higher susceptibility remain unknown. To better understand behaviors associated with risk, we monitored bats at three experimentally manipulated wind turbines in Indiana, United States, from July 29 to October 1, 2012, using thermal cameras and other methods. We observed bats on 993 occasions and saw many behaviors, including close approaches, flight loops and dives, hovering, and chases. Most bats altered course toward turbines during observation. Based on these new observations, we tested the hypotheses that wind speed and blade rotation speed influenced the way that bats interacted with turbines. We found that bats were detected more frequently at lower wind speeds and typically approached turbines on the leeward (downwind) side. The proportion of leeward approaches increased with wind speed when blades were prevented from turning, yet decreased when blades could turn. Bats were observed more frequently at turbines on moonlit nights. Taken together, these observations suggest that bats may orient toward turbines by sensing air currents and using vision, and that air turbulence caused by fastmoving blades creates conditions that are less attractive to bats passing in close proximity. Tree bats may respond to streams of air flowing downwind from trees at night while searching for roosts, conspecifics, and nocturnal insect prey that could accumulate in such flows. Fatalities of tree bats at turbines may be the consequence of behaviors that evolved to provide selective advantages when elicited by tall trees, but are now maladaptive when elicited by wind turbines. energy development | sensory perception | video surveillance | wildlife | wind energy B ats are long-lived mammals with low reproductive potential and require high adult survivorship to maintain populations (1, 2). The recent phenomenon of widespread fatalities of bats at utility scale wind turbines represents a new hazard with the potential to detrimentally affect entire populations (3, 4). Bat fatalities have been found at wind turbines on several continents (3-6), with hypothesized estimates of fatalities in some regions ranging into the tens to hundreds of thousands of bats per year (4, 6). Before recent observations of dead bats beneath wind turbines, fatal collisions of bats with tall structures had been rarely recorded (7). Most fatalities reported from turbines in the United States, Canada, and Europe are of species that evolved to roost primarily in trees during much of the year ("tree bats"), some of which migrate long distances in spring and late summer to autumn (8). In North America, tree bats compose more than three-quarters of the reported bat fatalities found at wind-energy sites (6, 9), although there is a paucity of information from the southwestern United States and Mexico. Similar patterns occur in Europe (4). Another prominent pattern in bat fatality data from northern temperate zones is that most fatali...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavior of bats at wind turbines

Cryan

Gorresen

Hein

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

167

222

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the state of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil, only 0.81% of the Cerrado remains, and many of its remnants are located within or near urban areas (Kronka et al 2005). Although it is known that several bat species are able to maintain viable populations in urban environments or near them (Esbérard 2003;Barros et al 2006), bat population declines due to anthropogenic influences have been pointed out by several studies (Rydell et al 2010;Sakanowicz and Wower 2013;Brosset et al 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in a cerrado landscape in São Carlos, southeastern Brazil

Muylaert¹,

Teixeira²,

Hortenci³

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We studied bat assemblages in seven sampling sites in the rural zone of São Carlos, southeastern Brazil. The sampling sites were two riparian forests, two types of Brazilian savanna (cerrado sensu stricto and cerradão), a Pinus plantation, a semideciduous forest, and an open area. We sampled bats from January 2007 to December 2011 with mist nets, totalizing 100 capture nights and 38,587 m2h of capture effort. We captured 523 individual bats of 23 species belonging to three families. Sturnira lilium was the most frequently captured species and represented 40% of all captures, followed by Carollia perspicillata (17%) and Glossophaga soricina (12%). The studied heterogeneous landscape harbors a rich bat fauna compared to other studies with similar effort in well-preserved savannas.

show abstract

“…The fi rst reports of bat fatalities at wind farms occurred in North America and Europe during the 1990s (Kunz et al 2007 ;Rydell et al 2010 ). However, the occurrence of bat fatalities at wind farms is a global phenomenon with cases described from numerous countries including Australia (Hull and Cawthen 2013 ) and South Africa (Doty and Martin 2013 ).…”

Section: Effects Of Solar Plants and Wind Farms On Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe, 27 bat species have been reported as killed by turbines ( http://www.eurobats.org/ ), and 98 % of these fatalities belong to a "highrisk" species group formed by bats included in the aerial-hawking guild (i.e., species that catch their prey in open spaces; Rydell et al 2010 . Although it could seem that different bat species groups are susceptible to wind turbines in America and Europe, it should be taken into account that all migratory tree-roosting bats from America are aerial-hawking, while mortality of migratory species also occurs in Europe but in smaller proportions (64 % in NW Europe, Rydell et al 2010 ; 56 % in Greece, Georgiakakis et al 2012 ;40 % in Portugal, Amorim et al 2012 ). However, a significant proportion of migratory killed bats in Europe belong to resident populations (Lehnert et al 2014 ).…”

Section: Effects Of Solar Plants and Wind Farms On Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%