Potential impacts of wave-powered marine renewable energy installations on marine birds
By W. J. Grecian, Richard Inger, M. Attrill, S. Bearhop, Bj Godley, MJ Witt, S. Votier. 2010
103 citations recorded by the source corpus.
One potential approach to combat the impacts of climate change is the expansion of renewable energy installations, leading to an increase in the number of wave-powered marine renewable energy installations (MREIs). The consequences of increased use of these devices for birds are unknown. Here we describe the wave-powered energy-generating devices currently either operational or in development and review the potential threats and benefits of these to marine birds, their habitats and prey. Direct negative effects include risk of collision, disturbance, displacement and redirection during construction, operation and decommissioning. Above-water collision is a particular concern with wind-powered devices, but, because of their low profiles, the collision risk associated with wave-powered devices is likely to be much lower. Conversely, wave devices also pose the novel threat of underwater collision. Wave-energy-generating devices may indirectly impact marine birds by altering oceanographic processes and food availability, with implications for trophic cascades. Through appropriate mitigation, wave-powered MREIs offer the potential to enhance habitats. Direct positive effects may include provision of roosting sites, and indirect positive effects may include prey aggregation due to suitable substrates for sessile organisms or because they act as de facto protected areas. The cumulative effect of these could be the improvement and protection of foraging opportunities for marine birds. Recent studies have been critical of the methods used in the assessment of wind-powered MREI impacts, which lack sufficient sample sizes, controls or pre-development comparisons. Here we suggest solutions for the design of future studies into the effects of MREIs. Wave-powered MREIs are certain to become part of the marine environment, but with appropriate planning, mitigation and monitoring they have the potential to offer benefits to marine birds in the future.
Subfields: Ecology, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cab0000290dfb93ba27afc93e33799dfac927811
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Citations in the corpus
- The potential of offshore windfarms to act as marine protected areas – A systematic review of current evidence (2014, background): “Previous reviews have highlighted the potential environmental advantages and disadvantages from construction, operation and decommissioning of MREIs [6,9–12].”
- Migratory marine species: their status, threats and conservation management needs (2014, background): “…have all been shown to negatively impact MMS either through direct mortality due to collisions (Hüppop et al., 2006; Everaert and Stienen, 2007; Grecian et al., 2010), habitat loss, or increased energy expenditure due to displacement (Desholm and Kahlert, 2005; Fox et al., 2006; Witt et al.,…”
- Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy (2017, background): “Similarly, the rotors of wave energy devices can pose collision risks to aquatic species [26,349,374,375] or affect the routes, navigation and feeding patterns of some migratory species [376], although strong evidence is lacking due to the small number of operational units (Section 6.”
- Sex-specific foraging behaviour in northern gannets Morus bassanus: incidence and implications (2012, background): “…may lead to differences in the risk of exposure to a wide range of potential environmental impacts such as oil pollution (Votier et al. 2005, 2008), offshore renewable energy installations (Grecian et al. 2010), climate variation (Grosbois & Thompson 2005), or fisheries bycatch (Gales et al. 1998).”