Effects of a wind farm installation on the understory bat community of a highly biodiverse tropical region in Mexico

PeerJ

article

Miguel Briones-Salas¹  Mario C. Lavariega¹  Claudia E. Moreno² 

[1] Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Instituto Politécnico Nacional;Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Instituto de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo

关键词: Wind energy;    Turbines;    Resilience;    Chiroptera;    Phylogenetic diversity;    Isthmus of Tehuantepec;    Functional diversity;    Species diversity;    Species richness;    Oaxaca;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.3424

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Wind energy has rapidly become an important alternative among renewable energies, and it is generally considered clean. However, little is known about its impact at the level of ecological communities, especially in biodiversity hotspots. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a highly biodiverse region in Mesoamerica, and has the highest potential for generating wind energy in Mexico. To assess the effects of installing a wind farm on the understory bat community in a landscape of fragmented habitat, we assessed its diversity and composition over four stages of installation (site preparation, construction, and two stages of operation). We captured 919 bats belonging to 22 species. Species richness, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity decreased during construction and the first stage of operation. However, these components of biodiversity increased during the second stage of operation, and species composition began to resemble that of the site preparation stage. No species considered as sensitive to disturbance was recorded at any stage. This is the first study to reveal the diversity of a Neotropical bat community after wind turbines begin to operate.

【 授权许可】

CC BY