Mitigating the negative impacts of tall wind turbines on bats: Vertical activity profiles and relationships to wind speed.

ABSTRACT: Wind turbines represent a source of hazard for bats, especially through collision with rotor blades. With increasing technical development, tall turbines (rotor-swept zone 50-150 m above ground level) are becoming widespread, yet we lack quantitative information about species active at these heights, which impedes proposing targeted mitigation recommendations for bat-friendly turbine operation. We investigated vertical activity profiles of a bat assemblage, and their relationships to wind speed, within a major valley of the European Alps where tall wind turbines are being deployed. To monitor bat activity we installed automatic recorders at sequentially increasing heights from ground level up to 65 m, with the goal to determine species-specific vertical activity profiles and to link them t

SUBMITTER: Wellig SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5862399 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature