Aggregation and feeding behaviour of pouting (Trisopterus luscus) at wind turbines in the Belgian part of the North Sea

By J. Reubens, Steven Degraer, M. Vincx. 2011

123 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract A substantial expansion of offshore wind farms in the North Sea has been planned, inducing a growing interest in the effects of these artificial habitats on the marine environment. Numerous researches have been done to consider the possible effects of wind farms. However, to date little research investigated actual effects on the ichthyofauna. This study provides the first insights into the use of the artificial hard substrates by Trisopterus luscus (pouting) at the Thorntonbank wind farm in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Scuba diving operated visual surveys around one wind turbine revealed a distinctly higher pouting population size and biomass (i.e. 22 000 individuals yielding a total biomass of 2700 kg) as compared to the population size present at the soft sediments surrounding the wind turbines. Stomach content analyses further demonstrated the dietary preference for prey species that lived on the turbines (i.e. Jassa herdmani and Pisidia longicornis). Yet, the present study clearly demonstrates that wind turbines built at sea may attract fish populations considerably, possibly related to the enhanced provision of resident food items on the turbines.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/424a88d1101b7c9647e6a5d02c5ed9429b8387b1

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In Global and Planetary Change

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

The large-scale impact of offshore wind farm structures on pelagic primary productivity in the southern North Sea (2017, background): “M. edulis are a highly diverse prey source capable of supporting higher trophic levels, especially vagile demersal megafauna (e.g. ﬁsh like Trisopterus luscus and crabs like Cancer pagurus ) (Langhamer et al 2009; Reubens et al 2011).”
Effects of ocean sprawl on ecological connectivity: impacts and solutions (2017, background): “…may be attracted to arti ﬁ cial structures as a result of the high prey densities inhabiting these structures, as well as the structural habitat they provide (Pickering and Whitmarsh, 1997; Wilhelmsson et al., 2006; Reubens et al., 2011, 2013; Krone et al., 2013; Ferrario et al., 2016).”
Benthic and fish aggregation inside an offshore wind farm: Which effects on the trophic web functioning? (2017, background): “6% and it was the most important prey species of the pouting dietary 582 composition (Reubens et al., 2011).”
Grid Integration Challenges of Wind Energy: A Review (2020, background): “Offshore wind turbines introduce additional objects on the seabed that may damage the benthic fauna and flora by blocking sunshine into the seawater, change the neighborhood fish distribution, and affect overall biodiversity [180], [181].”
Long-term effects of an offshore wind farm in the North Sea on fish communities (2015, background): “…· BACI design · OWF · Scour protection · Artificial reef Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Mar Ecol Prog Ser 528: 257–265, 2015 morhua (Winter et al. 2010, Reubens et al. 2013a, 2014) and pouting Tri so - pte rus luscus (Reubens et al. 2011, 2013a).”