Abstract
For this study, a methodology was developed for assessing impacts of wind energy generation on populations of birds and bats at regional to national scales. The approach combines existing methods in applied ecology for prioritizing species in terms of their potential risk from wind energy facilities and estimating impacts of fatalities on population status and trend caused by collisions with wind energy infrastructure. Methods include a qualitative prioritization approach, demographic models, and potential biological removal. The approach can be used to prioritize species in need of more thorough study as well as to identify species with minimal risk. However, the components of this methodology require simplifying assumptions and the data required may be unavailable or of poor quality for some species. These issues should be carefully considered before using the methodology. The approach will increase in value as more data become available and will broaden the understanding of anthropogenic sources of mortality on bird and bat populations.
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Acknowledgements
We thank V. Bennett, P. Cryan, D. Houseknect, T. Katzner, and M. Runge for reviewing early versions of the methodology. We particularly thank M. Runge for asking us to think harder about the utility of PBR. We are extremely grateful for external review panel members, T. Allison, W. Erickson, A. Hale, and F. Bennet. J. Havens developed nearly all the complex graphics and we appreciate his help. Finally, we thank the organizers of the CWW conference in Berlin and the many individuals who gave us excellent feedback on the methodology.
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Diffendorfer, J.E. et al. (2017). A Method to Assess the Population-Level Consequences of Wind Energy Facilities on Bird and Bat Species. In: Köppel, J. (eds) Wind Energy and Wildlife Interactions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51272-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51272-3_4
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