Wind farm development on peatlands increases fluvial macronutrient loading

Abstract

Wind farms can help to mitigate increasing atmospheric carbon (C) emissions. However, disturbance caused by wind farm development must not have lasting deleterious impacts on landscape C sequestration. To understand the effects of wind farm development on peatlands, we monitored streamwater at Europe's second largest onshore wind farm (539 MW), Whitelee, Scotland, for 31 months. Using nested catchment sampling to understand impacts on water quality, increasing macronutrient concentrations and exports were associated with wind farm development, particularly forest-felling and borrow pits. Low/poor water quality occurred in small headwater catchments most disturbed by development. At the site exit, dissolved organic C and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations increased during construction, though [SRP] recovery occurred within 2 years. Since C was lost and streamwater quality negatively affected, we propose future good practice measures for wind farm development, including limiting total disturbance within individual catchments and locating borrow pits, where deemed necessary, off site avoiding peatlands.

An ecological perspective for analysing rural depopulation and abandonment

“…This environmental improvement would reach a peak with active conservation and, to a lesser extent, with the frozen landscape alternative, due to its higher remaining activity, compared with the rest (Figure 3e,f). In contrast, intensification is expected to increase pollution in soils and water due to intensive farming (Ladrera et al., 2019), mining (García‐Carmona et al., 2019), recreational resorts and installations for energy production (Heal et al., 2020). In fact, depopulated territories are often sought as sites for the disposal of hazardous products, such as industrial or radioactive wastes (e.g.…”

Dissolved organic carbon export in a small, disturbed peat catchment: Insights from long‐term, high‐resolution, sensor‐based monitoring

“…However, Eaglesham Moorland (part of the Whitelee wind farm) soil water [DOC] ranges from 25.5 to 74.9 mg L −1 (van den Berg et al 2012). More recent work at multiple (20) sites on Eaglesham Moorland recorded [DOC] ranging from 6.1 to 137.0 mg L −1 (Heal et al 2020). DOC concentrations at Drumtree were higher than drained, nondrained, and restored peatlands in far‐north Scotland, which ranged from 3.8 mg L −1 (nondrained) to 42.2 mg L −1 (drained) (Pickard et al 2022).…”

“…Downstream export of DOC represents C not sequestered in terrestrial stocks and changes in DOC mobilization may represent destabilization of land in the catchment. Destabilization can occur through climatic (Freeman et al 2004; Fenner et al 2007; Larsen et al 2011) or anthropogenic catchment disturbance such as grazing, burning, drainage, or construction (Worrall et al 2003; Heal et al 2020).…”

Effects of peatland management on aquatic carbon concentrations and fluxes

“…This suggests that the ditches in the drained catchment were not actively eroding at the time of this study or that our fortnightly sampling interval did not capture peak flows when increased POC export might be expected, although no positive POC-discharge relationships were observed at the sampling sites in this study (Table 4). Peatland disturbances other than drainage can also contribute to short-term increases in POC concentrations (Heal et al, 2020;Nieminen et al, 2017), and a significant difference was detected for concentrations in the upper restoration catchment, which, in percentage coverage terms, was most affected by forestto-bog restoration (Table 1). The technique of fell to waste, whereby tree material is left on site post-restoration, was utilized in the Cross Lochs area, and this may have contributed to the observed POC effect.…”