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Barbastelle Bats in a Wind Farm: Are They at Risk?

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Barbastelle Bats in a Wind Farm: Are They at Risk? European Journal of Wildlife Research (2018) 64:43 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-018-1202-1 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Barbastelle bats in a wind farm: are they at risk? Grzegorz Apoznański1 & Sonia Sánchez-Navarro2,3 & Tomasz Kokurewicz1 & Stefan Pettersson4 & Jens Rydell2 Received: 13 December 2017 /Revised: 6 June 2018 /Accepted: 11 June 2018 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract We need to know if and how western barbastelles Barbastella barbastellus are affected by wind farming in Sweden. This is because wind turbines are frequently constructed in barbastelle habitats and yet there is no national guideline on how the arising conflict should be handled. We studied the movement, behavior and mortality of a barbastelle population at a wind farm in southern Sweden, using radio-telemetry, automatic bat detectors and carcass searches. The tagged bats (6 males and 8 females) roosted mainly under loose bark of dead oak trees and foraged in patches of mature deciduous woodlands or pockets of mature spruce trees within 15 km of the roosts. Extensive areas of young spruce plantation, open farmland and lakes were not used for roosting or foraging but were crossed by commuting bats. Continuous recordings with bat detectors frequently picked up barbastelles at forest edges 30 m from the turbines, but rarely over the turbine pads within 10 m from the turbines and never at heights of 30 and 100 m at the turbine towers. Barbastelles were apparently not attracted to the wind turbines and did not seem to interact with them in any way. Carcass searches under 10 wind turbines at 1-week intervals over three summers did not reveal any dead barbastelles, although three other species were recovered. We conclude that wind farming is not nessarily incompatible with effective conservation of barbastelles in Sweden, but instead of focusing on wind turbines, effors should concentrate on (a) preservation and restoration of mature, age-structured deciduous woodlands and spruce forests, including very small and isolated patches, which provide food and roosts, and probably also (b) avoidance of outdoor lighting in areas used by barbastelles. Designating large circular buffer zones around each known or suspected colony according to current practice would be inefficient or meaningless in our case, because barbastelles use extensive home ranges and switch roost frequently. We argue that barbastelle management must be applied on a landscape scale. Keywords Acoustic monitoring . Carcass search . Echolocation . Radio-telemetry . Wind energy Introduction * Sonia Sánchez-Navarro [email protected] The increasing demand for electricity worldwide inevitably Grzegorz Apoznański leads to environmental impacts in one form or another [email protected] (Sánchez-Zapata et al. 2016). For example, wind turbines have become a serious problem in areas where there is bat Tomasz Kokurewicz [email protected] activity. Bats (Chiroptera, Mammalia) are killed, sometimes in large Stefan Pettersson [email protected] numbers, by the moving rotor blades or by pressure differ- ences causing so called barotrauma, when flying and feeding Jens Rydell around the turbine towers (Kunz et al. 2007; Lehnert et al. [email protected] 2014; Frick et al. 2017). The threat from wind turbines does 1 Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Institute of not apply to all bats, however, and it is important to distinguish Biology, Department of Vertebrate Ecology and Palaeontology, those that are affected from those that are not, so that mitiga- Kożuchowska 5b, 51-631 Wrocław, Poland tion measures can be adequately aimed at the right targets. Bat 2 Biology Department, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden species that live among or below the forest canopy are be- 3 Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de lieved to be much less at risk than those that fly and feed in Doñana-CSIC, Américo Vespucio 26, 41092 Sevilla, Spain the open air at higher altitude and it is the latter category that 4 EnviroPlanning AB, SE-411 04 Göteborg, Sweden needs most attention (Arnett et al. 2015). 43 Page 2 of 10 Eur J Wildl Res (2018) 64:43 The western barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus of Halland (57° 00′ N, 12° 40′ E), on the west-facing slope (Schreber, 1774), the focal species of this study, is associated forming the transition zone between the coastal alluvial plain, with forests (Russo et al. 2004), but sometimes feeds above mostly used for agriculture, and the slightly elevated (approx. the canopy (Sierro 1999) and in other open situations 100 m a.s.l.) inland plateau with moraine, which is mostly (Eriksson 2004; Greenaway 2005; Ancillotto et al. 2014). covered by coniferous forests and bogs and managed for for- The possible vulnerability of barbastelles to wind turbines estry (Fig. 1). has never been studied in detail and remains unknown. The area that is now the wind farm was historically trans- However, there is an explicit need to investigate if and how formed into heathland with patches of deciduous or mixed barbastelles react to wind turbines in Sweden, partly because forest, including birch Betula spp., beech Fagus sylvatica, this species often lives in areas of interest for wind farming oak Quercus robur and spruce Picea abies.Overthelast (Ahlén 2015). It may also be important to find suitable 150 years, extensive areas were planted with spruce and pine methods for effective conservation of barbastelles in wind Pinus sylvestris, much of which was subsequently either cut or farm areas. destroyed in two severe storms in 2005 and 2007. At present The barbastelle is more or less rare over much of its range the study area (including the wind farm) is dominated by and shows a decreasing population trend (IUCN 2016). It is planted spruce in different aged stands (ca 70% of the area). included in Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitats Directive Some semi-natural deciduous forest (ca 15%), old spruce and is classified as ‘near threatened’ on a global scale (IUCN stands (ca 10%) and natural bog vegetation with alder 2016). In Sweden, where this study took place, it is classified (Alnus spp.), birch (Betula spp.) and pine (Pinus sylvestris) as ‘vulnerable’ (ArtDatabanken 2015). (5%) also remain, however, particularly in wet, steep, rocky The deciduous forests in the coastal province of Halland in or otherwise inaccessible places, where most of it is still un- southwestern Sweden are a stronghold for the barbastelle in affected by forestry. In addition, deciduous woodland remains northern Europe and harbours what seems to be a thriving as islands of different sizes on low hills on the open fields west population. This area has been intensively surveyed for bats. of the wind farm. The distribution of these habitats is illustrat- The barbastelle shows a continuous distribution and is one of ed in Table 1 and the maps (Figs. 1, 2 and 3). the commonest bats in the area (Petterson and Gylje Blank 2016). However, Halland is also exposed to the prevailing Bat recordings south-western winds from the sea and is therefore of interest for wind farming. Hence, there is a potential conflict between We monitored bat activity continuously near the wind turbines exploitation of the wind resource and conservation of from June to the end of September 2014–2016, using three barbastelles (and other bats) in that region. automatic real-time full spectrum bat detectors (Pettersson D- To identify the impact that wind turbines may have on 500X, Pettersson Elektronik, Sweden). The detectors were barbastelles, we studied the bats’ behaviour in and near a wind installed inside the base of the turbine towers and connected farm in Halland, with strong emphasis on the use of space near via cables to external electret microphones mounted on the wind turbines for roosting, foraging and commuting. We test- nacelle housing at a height of ca 100 m and on the tower at ed the following specific questions. a height of ca 30 m. The microphones at the nacelles and (a) Are barbastelles attracted to wind turbines for feeding, towers were directed ca 20o downwards and were shielded commuting or roosting? from rain and wind. We also monitored bats from the ground (b) Are barbastelles subject to increased mortality caused at the turbine pads (gravel plain surrounding the tower) near by wind turbines? (< 10 m) the base of the turbines, using the same equipment (c) Are barbastelles dependent on other features occurring but with the microphones directed horizontally. For shorter within or near the wind farm? periods, we also placed additional detectors at the adjacent forest edge with the microphones directed parallel to it. The detectors were run either on external power from the facility Materials and methods (when the detector was placed on or inside the tower) or on four 1.5 V AA-batteries (when the detector was placed away Study area from the turbine). The three turbines used for bat detector recordings (no. 5, 6 and 10) were selected based on the result The Askome wind farm, where this work was done, consists of a post-construction survey of all turbines in 2014–2015 and of 10 General Electric 2.75-103 turbines, with hub height which showed that barbastelle activity was most frequent at 98 m, rotor diameter 103 m and rotor sweep area 8332 m2 turbines 5, 6 and 10 (Rydell et al. 2018). (https://en.wind-turbine-models.com/turbines/747-general- Detectors were activated from sunset to sunrise and set to electric-ge-2.75-103#datasheet). The wind farm has been in automatic triggering with low-pass filter on, sensitivity at ‘me- operation since 2013. It is located in the Swedish province dium’, 500-kHz sampling rate and 3-s recording time. Eur J Wildl Res (2018) 64:43 Page 3 of 10 43 Fig.
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