Wind farm bat fatalities in southern Brazil: temporal patterns and influence of environmental factors

Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy

article

Izidoro Sarmento do Amaral¹  Maria João Ramos Pereira³  Aurelea Mader²  Marlon R. Ferraz¹  Jessica Bandeira Pereira¹  Larissa Rosa de Oliveira¹ 

[1] Universidade Vale do Rio dos Sinos;Ardea Consultoria Ambiental;Bird and Mammal Evolution, Systematics and Ecology Lab, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul;Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul

关键词: environmental monitoring;    mitigation;    wind turbines;    bioacoustics;    scavenger removal;    Tadarida brasiliensis;   

DOI  :  10.4404/hystrix-00256-2019

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Associazione Teriologica Italiana

【 摘 要 】

Energy demand created by the present model of economic growth has transformed the natural landscape. Changes in megadiverse environments should be accompanied by studies that describe andpredict the effects of these changes on ecosystems, underpinning the avoidance or at least the reduction of impacts and species conservation. Wind farm impacts on bats are scarcely known inBrazil. To fulfill this gap on spatiotemporal patterns in bat fatalities in a wind complex in southernBrazil were analysed. Monthly surveys were done around 129 wind towers in search for bat carcasses between 2014 and 2018. The number of specimens found per species was analysed in annualsets and also seasonally to understand the influence of land use in the spatial pattern of bat fatalities. The activity of aerial insectivore bats was monitored using ultrasound detectors and modelledusing Generalized Linear Models (GLM), using meteorological variables as predictors. As a resultof 48 months of surveys, 266 carcasses of six insectivorous bat species were recorded. The highestnumber of fatalities belonged to Tadarida brasiliensis. Fatalities occurred exclusively between October and May (Austral Spring to Austral Autumn), mainly in towers near the closest urban centre.Most fatalities occurred in the first (69%) and fourth (17%) years of operation; fatalities were positively related to wind speed. Eighty-three percent of the bat activity occurred between 15 ◦C and23 ◦C. To minimize fatalities of synanthropic bat species such as T. brasiliensis, we suggest thatwind complexes should be located at least 4 km distant from the urban centres, where those speciesroost. Moreover, between December and March, when most species from subtropical and temperate South America reproduce, wind towers located closer to known roosts should shut down onwarmer nights, when bats are more active.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC