Cargando…

Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk

Bat fatalities at wind energy facilities in North America are predominantly comprised of migratory, tree‐dependent species, but it is unclear why these bats are at higher risk. Factors influencing bat susceptibility to wind turbines might be revealed by temporal patterns in their behaviors around th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Goldenberg, Shifra Z., Cryan, Paul M., Gorresen, Paulo Marcos, Fingersh, Lee Jay
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8093663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33976852
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7388
_version_ 1783687859037798400
author Goldenberg, Shifra Z.
Cryan, Paul M.
Gorresen, Paulo Marcos
Fingersh, Lee Jay
author_facet Goldenberg, Shifra Z.
Cryan, Paul M.
Gorresen, Paulo Marcos
Fingersh, Lee Jay
author_sort Goldenberg, Shifra Z.
collection PubMed
description Bat fatalities at wind energy facilities in North America are predominantly comprised of migratory, tree‐dependent species, but it is unclear why these bats are at higher risk. Factors influencing bat susceptibility to wind turbines might be revealed by temporal patterns in their behaviors around these dynamic landscape structures. In northern temperate zones, fatalities occur mostly from July through October, but whether this reflects seasonally variable behaviors, passage of migrants, or some combination of factors remains unknown. In this study, we examined video imagery spanning one year in the state of Colorado in the United States, to characterize patterns of seasonal and nightly variability in bat behavior at a wind turbine. We detected bats on 177 of 306 nights representing approximately 3,800 hr of video and > 2,000 discrete bat events. We observed bats approaching the turbine throughout the night across all months during which bats were observed. Two distinct seasonal peaks of bat activity occurred in July and September, representing 30% and 42% increases in discrete bat events from the preceding months June and August, respectively. Bats exhibited behaviors around the turbine that increased in both diversity and duration in July and September. The peaks in bat events were reflected in chasing and turbine approach behaviors. Many of the bat events involved multiple approaches to the turbine, including when bats were displaced through the air by moving blades. The seasonal and nightly patterns we observed were consistent with the possibility that wind turbines invoke investigative behaviors in bats in late summer and autumn coincident with migration and that bats may return and fly close to wind turbines even after experiencing potentially disruptive stimuli like moving blades. Our results point to the need for a deeper understanding of the seasonality, drivers, and characteristics of bat movement across spatial scales.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8093663
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-80936632021-05-10 Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk Goldenberg, Shifra Z. Cryan, Paul M. Gorresen, Paulo Marcos Fingersh, Lee Jay Ecol Evol Original Research Bat fatalities at wind energy facilities in North America are predominantly comprised of migratory, tree‐dependent species, but it is unclear why these bats are at higher risk. Factors influencing bat susceptibility to wind turbines might be revealed by temporal patterns in their behaviors around these dynamic landscape structures. In northern temperate zones, fatalities occur mostly from July through October, but whether this reflects seasonally variable behaviors, passage of migrants, or some combination of factors remains unknown. In this study, we examined video imagery spanning one year in the state of Colorado in the United States, to characterize patterns of seasonal and nightly variability in bat behavior at a wind turbine. We detected bats on 177 of 306 nights representing approximately 3,800 hr of video and > 2,000 discrete bat events. We observed bats approaching the turbine throughout the night across all months during which bats were observed. Two distinct seasonal peaks of bat activity occurred in July and September, representing 30% and 42% increases in discrete bat events from the preceding months June and August, respectively. Bats exhibited behaviors around the turbine that increased in both diversity and duration in July and September. The peaks in bat events were reflected in chasing and turbine approach behaviors. Many of the bat events involved multiple approaches to the turbine, including when bats were displaced through the air by moving blades. The seasonal and nightly patterns we observed were consistent with the possibility that wind turbines invoke investigative behaviors in bats in late summer and autumn coincident with migration and that bats may return and fly close to wind turbines even after experiencing potentially disruptive stimuli like moving blades. Our results point to the need for a deeper understanding of the seasonality, drivers, and characteristics of bat movement across spatial scales. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8093663/ /pubmed/33976852 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7388 Text en Published 2021. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Goldenberg, Shifra Z.
Cryan, Paul M.
Gorresen, Paulo Marcos
Fingersh, Lee Jay
Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title_full Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title_fullStr Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title_full_unstemmed Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title_short Behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
title_sort behavioral patterns of bats at a wind turbine confirm seasonality of fatality risk
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8093663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33976852
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7388
work_keys_str_mv AT goldenbergshifraz behavioralpatternsofbatsatawindturbineconfirmseasonalityoffatalityrisk
AT cryanpaulm behavioralpatternsofbatsatawindturbineconfirmseasonalityoffatalityrisk
AT gorresenpaulomarcos behavioralpatternsofbatsatawindturbineconfirmseasonalityoffatalityrisk
AT fingershleejay behavioralpatternsofbatsatawindturbineconfirmseasonalityoffatalityrisk