Vulnerability of avian populations to renewable energy production

Tara J Conkling; Hannah B Vander Zanden; Taber D Allison; Jay E Diffendorfer; Thomas V Dietsch; Adam E Duerr; Amy L Fesnock; Rebecca R Hernandez; Scott R Loss; David M Nelson; Peter M Sanzenbacher; Julie L Yee; Todd E Katzner

doi:10.1098/rsos.211558

Vulnerability of avian populations to renewable energy production

R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Mar 30;9(3):211558. doi: 10.1098/rsos.211558. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, ID 87648, USA.
² Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
³ Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute, Washington, DC 20006, USA.
⁴ U.S. Geological Survey, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA.
⁵ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office, Carlsbad, CA 92008, USA.
⁶ Bloom Research Inc., Santa Ana, CA 92705, USA.
⁷ Desert District Office, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Palm Springs, CA 92262, USA.
⁸ Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁹ Wild Energy Initiative, John Muir Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
¹¹ Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Frostburg, MD 21532, USA.
¹² U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Palm Springs Fish and Wildlife Office, Palm Springs, CA 92262, USA.
¹³ U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA.

Abstract

Renewable energy production can kill individual birds, but little is known about how it affects avian populations. We assessed the vulnerability of populations for 23 priority bird species killed at wind and solar facilities in California, USA. Bayesian hierarchical models suggested that 48% of these species were vulnerable to population-level effects from added fatalities caused by renewables and other sources. Effects of renewables extended far beyond the location of energy production to impact bird populations in distant regions across continental migration networks. Populations of species associated with grasslands where turbines were located were most vulnerable to wind. Populations of nocturnal migrant species were most vulnerable to solar, despite not typically being associated with deserts where the solar facilities we evaluated were located. Our findings indicate that addressing declines of North American bird populations requires consideration of the effects of renewables and other anthropogenic threats on both nearby and distant populations of vulnerable species.

Keywords: anthropogenic effects; bird populations; solar; wildlife mortality; wind.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5898489