Risks to different populations and age classes of gannets from impacts of offshore wind farms in the southern North Sea

Pollock, Christopher J.; Lane, Jude V.; Buckingham, Lila; Garthe, Stefan; Jeavons, Ruth; Furness, Robert W.; Hamer, Keith C.

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105457

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…When the SSC and Chl-aC upstream are higher, the SSC and Chl-aC downstream are lower than that upstream (Figure 5(b1,b2,d1,d2)) [57]. Furthermore, some studies indicate that the downstream of OWFs attracts numerous benthic organisms [32,33], transforming the area into their habitat and refuge. This, in turn, leads to local changes in phytoplankton (such as algae) in seawater [74,75] and changes the spatial distribution of Chl-aC in the region, resulting in higher Chl-aC downstream than upstream (Figure 3k-m,o).…”

Section: Wind Turbines Induce Change In Ssc and Chl-acmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zhan [29], Song [30], and Wilber [31] revealed the effects of OWFs on benthic organisms from the aspects of community structure, habitat change, and spatial-temporal patterns. Furthermore, by studying benthic organisms in the OWF region of the North Sea, Coates [32] and Pollock [33] discovered that the OWF area could provide a foraging habitat and refuge, potentially boosting biodiversity. Studies [34] have shown that the structure of the fish community in the OWF area and adjacent waters of the Yangtze River Estuary is impacted by factors such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, depth, and salinity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Study on the Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Surrounding Water Environment in the Yangtze Estuary Based on Remote Sensing

Cai,

Hu,

Qiu

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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Offshore wind farms (OWFs), built extensively in recent years, induce changes in the surrounding water environment. The changes in the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-aC) induced by an OWF in the Yangtze River Estuary were analyzed based on Chinese Gaofen (GF) satellite data. The results show the following: (1) The flow near the wind turbines makes the bottom water surge, driving the sediment to “re-suspend” and be lost, deepening the scour pit around the bottom of the wind turbines, which is known as “self-digging”. The interaction between the pillar of a wind turbine and tidal currents makes hydrodynamic factors more complicated. Blocking by wind turbines promoting the scour of the bottom seabed of the OWF results in speeding up the circulation rate of sediment loss and “re-suspension”, which contributes to the change in the SSC and Chl-aC. This kind of change in sediment transport in estuarine areas due to human construction affects the balance of the ecological environment. Long-term sediment loss around wind turbines also influences the safety of wind turbines. (2) The SSC and Chl-aC are mainly in the range of 200–600 mg/L and 3–7 μg/L, respectively, in the OWF area, higher than the values obtained in surrounding waters. The SSC and Chl-aC downstream of the OWF are higher than those upstream, with differences of 100–300 mg/L and 0.5–2 μg/L. High SSC and Chl-aC “tails” appear downstream of wind turbines, consistent with the direction of local tidal currents, with lengths in the range of 2–4 km. In addition, the water environment in the vicinity of a wind turbine array, with a roughly 2–5 km scope (within 4 km during flooding and around 2.5 km during ebbing approximately) downstream of the wind turbine array, is impacted by the OWF. (3) In order to solve the problem of “self-digging” induced by OWFs, it is suggested that the distance between two wind turbines should be controlled within 2–3.5 km in the main flow direction, promising that the second row of wind turbines will be placed on the suspended sediment deposition belt induced by the first row. In this way, the problems of ecosystem imbalance and tidal current structure change caused by sediment loss because of local scouring can be reduced. Furthermore, mutual compensation between wind turbines can solve the “self-digging” problem to a certain extent and ensure the safety of OWFs.

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Section: Wind Turbines Induce Change In Ssc and Chl-acmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Surrounding Water Environment in the Yangtze Estuary Based on Remote Sensing

Cai,

Hu,

Qiu

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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“…The construction of OWFs plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions (Li et al, 2022), so there has been large-scale construction of OWFs in recent years. However, the development of OWFs has impacts on marine organisms (Andersson, 2011;Tricas and Gill, 2011;Coates et al, 2014;Raoux et al, 2017;Oh et al, 2021;Pollock et al, 2021), marine water quality (Kamermans et al, 2018), birds (Furness et al, 2013) and sediments (De Borger et al, 2021). In particular, OWFs adversely affect the marine ecological environment and the behavior, physiology, growth and survival of marine organisms (Methratta and Dardick, 2019;Mavraki et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Offshore wind farms changed the spatial distribution of chlorophyll-a on the sea surface

Li²,

Liu³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Offshore wind farms (OWFs) have developed rapidly in recent years. However, it is difficult to accurately evaluate their impact on marine ecosystems and the marine environment due to the complexity of marine dynamic monitoring and various marine environment evaluation indicators. The spatial distribution of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) on the surface of seawater is one of basic spatial information of the sea area, which is the key determines the distribution and productivity of offshore biological resources at different spatial levels. Evaluating the impact of OWFs on the spatial distribution of Chl-a is of significance but the research carried out to date has been scarce. In this study, 682 Landsat images were selected from 1990 to 2021 as well as 38 OWFs from around the world as the research areas. The spatial distribution of Chl-a on the sea surface was calculated using the O’Reilly band ratio OC2 algorithm and HU color index (CI) algorithm and the influence of OWFs on the spatial distribution pattern of Chl-a was determined by using the global and local Moran Indexes. Among the 38 wind farms, it was found that: (1) the spatial autocorrelation of Chl-a concentration at 37 wind farms increased after the construction of the wind turbines; (2) the spatial distribution pattern of Chl-a at 28 wind farms showed pronounced aggregation after the construction of the wind turbines. Therefore, it was determined that the construction of OWFs will change the spatial distribution pattern of Chl-a, which may affect the original balance of local marine ecosystems.

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Risks to different populations and age classes of gannets from impacts of offshore wind farms in the southern North Sea

Cited by 2 publications

References 33 publications

Study on the Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Surrounding Water Environment in the Yangtze Estuary Based on Remote Sensing

Study on the Impact of Offshore Wind Farms on Surrounding Water Environment in the Yangtze Estuary Based on Remote Sensing

Offshore wind farms changed the spatial distribution of chlorophyll-a on the sea surface

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