Wind farms are an essential component of global renewable energy policy and the action to limit the effects of climate change. There is, however, considerable concern over the impacts of wind farms on wildlife, leading to a wide range of research and monitoring studies, a growing body of literature and several international conferences on the topic.
This unique multi-volume work provides a comprehensive overview of the interactions between wind farms and wildlife.
Volume 1 documents the current knowledge of the potential impacts upon wildlife during both construction and operation. An introductory chapter on the nature of wind farms and the impact assessment process is followed by a series of in-depth chapters documenting effects on climatic conditions, vegetation, terrestrial invertebrates, aquatic invertebrates and fish, reptiles and amphibians, birds, bats and terrestrial mammals. A synopsis of the known and potential effects of wind farms upon wildlife in perspective concludes Wildlife and Wind Farms - Conflicts and Solutions.
The authors have been carefully selected from across the globe from the large number of academics, consultants and practitioners now engaged in wind farm studies, for their influential contribution to the science. Edited by Martin Perrow and with contributions by 40 leading researchers including: Robert Barclay, Michael Dillon, Jan Olof Helldin, Hermann Hötker, Jeffrey Lovich, Manuela de Lucas and Eugene Takle. The authors represent a wide range of organisations and institutions including the Universities of Calgary, Iowa State, Lund & Wyoming, US Geological Survey, Michael-Otto-Institut im NABU, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Renewable Energy Systems and several leading consultancies.
Each chapter includes informative figures, tables, colour photographs and detailed case studies. Many of the latter are produced stand-alone from invited additional authors to ensure geographic spread and to showcase exciting new, often previously unpublished research.
Wildlife and Wind Farms - Conflicts and Solutions is designed for practitioners, researchers, managers and for a range of students in higher education, particularly those involved with environmental, ecological, conservation, impact assessment and climate change studies.
Preface
1. The nature of wind farms - Gero Vella
2. Climate - Eugene S. Takle
3. Vegetation - Margarida R. Silva and Isabel Passos
4. Terrestrial invertebrates - Sarah Elzay, Lusha Tronstad and Michael E. Dillon
5. Aquatic organisms - William O’Connor
6. Reptiles and amphibians - Jeffrey E. Lovich and Joshua R. Ennen
7. Birds: displacement - Hermann Hötker
8. Birds: collision - Manuela de Lucas and Martin R. Perrow
9. Bats - Robert M.R. Barclay, Erin F. Baerwald and Jens Rydell
10. Terrestrial mammals - Jan Olof Helldin, Anna Skarin, Wiebke Neumann, Mattias Olsson, Jens Jung, Jonas Kindberg, Niklas Lindberg and Fredrik Widemo
11. A synthesis of effects and impacts - Martin R. Perrow
Index
Martin Perrow is Founder and Director of ECON Ecological Consultancy Ltd and currently manages the ornithological requirements of several wind farm sites, assessing the likely impacts and providing advice in order to engineer the co-existence of birds and wind farms with minimal impacts. He has published widely on the subject.
- Shortlisted for the The Wildlife Society's 2019 Edited Book award.
"[...] This four-volume series provides a much-needed overview of the potential effects of wind farms on wildlife and local ecosystems as well as potential solutions. Due to inherent differences between onshore and offshore wind farms, the series is divided into four volumes written by leading experts in the field, although the writing style is very accessible for a broad professional audience. The four volumes are similar in structure and topic coverage, and each can be read independently [...] We consider these four volumes to provide an excellent introduction and overview into the broad range of effects of wind farms on ecological systems, and on monitoring methodologies and potential mitigation measures. The volumes are highly recommended to anyone interested in the field – students, researchers, consultants, practitioners and policy-makers, even if their focus is only on a single taxonomic group. Due to the imbalance in research conducted worldwide, as explicitly mentioned by the editor and authors, Volumes 1 and 2 provide contributions mainly from North American and Europe and Volumes 3 and 4 have a stronger geographical bias towards research in western Europe. That understandable bias will hopefully be more limited in the future as data from other parts of the world become available. Several chapters would have benefitted from cross-references between chapters, but the final chapter of each volume generally integrates information well, highlighting gaps in our knowledge and providing some suggestions for the future. In this quickly growing field, where a great deal of work is not published in peer-reviewed journals, these highly informative and accessible volumes are a great place to start, as they are structured to facilitate both quick referencing and more in-depth reading."
– Judy Shamoun-Baranes, Elspeth Sage, Jens van Erp & Emiel van Loon, Ibis, 2020
"[...] Whilst I have been sent two volumes in this series, there are a further two, dealing with similar "offshore" topics. Frankly, I wish I had been sent all four, for this looks to be a trendsetter of textbooks. Pelagic Publishing is gaining a reputation for producing modestly priced, attractively adorned and crisply edited volumes, and Volumes 1 and 2 bear this out. I'll go further – these are superb books, and I congratulate the editor and the many contributors. [...] These two volumes are excellent, and I look forward to reading more in the series."
– Des Thompson, BES Bulletin, 49(1)
"[...] These two books are a major step forward consolidating our current knowledge of potential impacts of wind farms on wildlife, and options for monitoring and mitigation. Coherent structures for each chapter provide easy navigation, and liberal decoration with case studies, figures, tables and photographs, means that the expansive content is easily digestible. [...] The Editor and the many authors of chapters and cases studies should be congratulated on this important contribution to the field. The next two offshore volumes are highly anticipated."
– Chris Thaxter, BTO book reviews