One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Pereira,Carolina Goecking
Data de Publicação: 2022
Outros Autores: Falcão,Fábio, Bernard,Enrico
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)
Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-46702022000100305
Resumo: ABSTRACT Wind energy is an important electricity source. Even though it is cleaner than other energy sources in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, gathering energy from the wind has impact on organisms that fly, including bats. Understanding whether and how bat activity patterns are affected by environmental variables may be useful when trying to mitigate these impacts, for example bat mortality from collisions with wind turbines. Northeastern Brazil concentrates one of the world’s largest wind potentials and has thousands of wind turbines in operation. In spite of this scenario, there is a lack of basic information, such as the presence of bat species and their activity patterns in those wind farms. We used passive acoustic monitoring to assess species richness and species composition and obtain data on activity patterns of insectivorous bats in four wind farm complexes in northeastern Brazil. We also investigated the possible correlation between environmental variables (wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity, and percentage of moon illumination) and bat activity. The acoustic monitoring carried out for 30 nights produced approximately 120,000 bat passes of 29 sonotypes and four families. Environmental variables may influence bat activity, but in a site-specific way, i.e., although the environmental conditions of wind-energy complexes were similar, there was not an activity pattern common to all. Considering such specificities, we strongly recommend long-term specific on-site monitoring in each wind complex, avoiding generalizations for the environmental licensing of wind energy in Brazil.
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spelling One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessmentChiropteraenvironmental impact assessmentsenvironmental licensingenvironmental variableswind energywind farmsABSTRACT Wind energy is an important electricity source. Even though it is cleaner than other energy sources in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, gathering energy from the wind has impact on organisms that fly, including bats. Understanding whether and how bat activity patterns are affected by environmental variables may be useful when trying to mitigate these impacts, for example bat mortality from collisions with wind turbines. Northeastern Brazil concentrates one of the world’s largest wind potentials and has thousands of wind turbines in operation. In spite of this scenario, there is a lack of basic information, such as the presence of bat species and their activity patterns in those wind farms. We used passive acoustic monitoring to assess species richness and species composition and obtain data on activity patterns of insectivorous bats in four wind farm complexes in northeastern Brazil. We also investigated the possible correlation between environmental variables (wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity, and percentage of moon illumination) and bat activity. The acoustic monitoring carried out for 30 nights produced approximately 120,000 bat passes of 29 sonotypes and four families. Environmental variables may influence bat activity, but in a site-specific way, i.e., although the environmental conditions of wind-energy complexes were similar, there was not an activity pattern common to all. Considering such specificities, we strongly recommend long-term specific on-site monitoring in each wind complex, avoiding generalizations for the environmental licensing of wind energy in Brazil.Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia2022-01-01info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontext/htmlhttp://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-46702022000100305Zoologia (Curitiba) v.39 2022reponame:Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)instname:Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologiainstacron:SBZ10.1590/s1984-4689.v39.e21041info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessPereira,Carolina GoeckingFalcão,FábioBernard,Enricoeng2022-04-25T00:00:00Zoai:scielo:S1984-46702022000100305Revistahttp://www.scielo.br/zoolONGhttps://old.scielo.br/oai/scielo-oai.phpsbz@sbzoologia.org.br1984-46891984-4670opendoar:2022-04-25T00:00Zoologia (Curitiba. Online) - Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologiafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
title One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
spellingShingle One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
Pereira,Carolina Goecking
Chiroptera
environmental impact assessments
environmental licensing
environmental variables
wind energy
wind farms
title_short One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
title_full One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
title_fullStr One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
title_full_unstemmed One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
title_sort One size doesn’t fit all: Singularities in bat species richness and activity patterns in wind-energy complexes in Brazil and implications for environmental assessment
author Pereira,Carolina Goecking
author_facet Pereira,Carolina Goecking
Falcão,Fábio
Bernard,Enrico
author_role author
author2 Falcão,Fábio
Bernard,Enrico
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Pereira,Carolina Goecking
Falcão,Fábio
Bernard,Enrico
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Chiroptera
environmental impact assessments
environmental licensing
environmental variables
wind energy
wind farms
topic Chiroptera
environmental impact assessments
environmental licensing
environmental variables
wind energy
wind farms
description ABSTRACT Wind energy is an important electricity source. Even though it is cleaner than other energy sources in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, gathering energy from the wind has impact on organisms that fly, including bats. Understanding whether and how bat activity patterns are affected by environmental variables may be useful when trying to mitigate these impacts, for example bat mortality from collisions with wind turbines. Northeastern Brazil concentrates one of the world’s largest wind potentials and has thousands of wind turbines in operation. In spite of this scenario, there is a lack of basic information, such as the presence of bat species and their activity patterns in those wind farms. We used passive acoustic monitoring to assess species richness and species composition and obtain data on activity patterns of insectivorous bats in four wind farm complexes in northeastern Brazil. We also investigated the possible correlation between environmental variables (wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity, and percentage of moon illumination) and bat activity. The acoustic monitoring carried out for 30 nights produced approximately 120,000 bat passes of 29 sonotypes and four families. Environmental variables may influence bat activity, but in a site-specific way, i.e., although the environmental conditions of wind-energy complexes were similar, there was not an activity pattern common to all. Considering such specificities, we strongly recommend long-term specific on-site monitoring in each wind complex, avoiding generalizations for the environmental licensing of wind energy in Brazil.
publishDate 2022
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2022-01-01
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1984-46702022000100305
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dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
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dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv 10.1590/s1984-4689.v39.e21041
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dc.format.none.fl_str_mv text/html
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Zoologia (Curitiba) v.39 2022
reponame:Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)
instname:Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia
instacron:SBZ
instname_str Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia
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reponame_str Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)
collection Zoologia (Curitiba. Online)
repository.name.fl_str_mv Zoologia (Curitiba. Online) - Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia
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