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Carcass of a Nathusius pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus nathusii) below a wind turbine Abb. 1 Schlagopfer (Rauhautfledermaus, Pipistrellus nathusii) an einer Windenergieanlage
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Evidenzbasierter Fledermausschutz in Windkraftvorhaben
Dieses Open-Access-Buch beschäftigt sich mit den neuesten Erkenntnissen und Evidenzen über die Möglichkeiten, die Zahl der Fledermaus-Schlagopfer an Windenergieanlagen zu reduzieren.
Die Energieproduktion aus Windkraft ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Energiewende in Deutschland. Seit Jahre...
Citations
... Die Fledertiere (Ordnung Chiroptera) sind mit weltweit über 1400 Arten (darunter 1200 Arten der Fledermäuse, früher als Unterordnung Microchiroptera bezeichnet) eine sehr diverse Säugetiergruppe (Burgin et al. 2018 (Frick et al. 2019). Neben dem Habitatverlust und indirekten Gefährdungen wie der Abnahme der Nahrungsgrundlage dieser insektenfressenden Arten (Hallmann et al. 2017;Seibold et al. 2019) ist in den vergangenen zwei Dekaden der Ausbau der Windenergie als eine zusätzliche Gefährdungsursache für mehrere mitteleuropäische Fledermausarten in den Fokus der Forschung gerückt (O'Shea et al. 2016;Voigt 2020). Besonders betroffen sind wandernde Fledermausarten, die teilweise Zugstrecken von > 2000 km zurücklegen (Voigt et al. 2015;Frick et al. 2017;Richardson et al. 2021). ...
Zusammenfassung
Der Ausbau der Windenergie findet zunehmend im Wald statt, da hier häufig windhöffige und damit ökonomisch attraktive Standorte zu finden sind. Allerdings ist hier der Konflikt mit dem Artenschutz im Allgemeinen und dem Fledermausschutz im Speziellen besonders hoch. In diesem Beitrag beleuchten wir vor dem Hintergrund des gesetzlich vorgegebenen normativen Rahmens den artenschutzrechtlichen Teil der Windkraftplanung im Wald mit Bezug auf Fledermäuse – von der Untersuchungsplanung über die eingesetzten Methoden bis zur Bewertung. Bezogen auf Fledermäuse stehen hier insbesondere die Vermeidung der direkten Tötung sowie die Verminderung der Beeinträchtigung ihres Lebensraums im Fokus der Betrachtung. Bundesland-spezifische Arbeitshilfen stecken den Untersuchungsumfang, die einzusetzenden Erfassungsmethoden und den räumlichen und zeitlichen Untersuchungsrahmen ab. Sie empfehlen zudem Maßnahmen zur Kompensation potenziell negativer Auswirkungen eines Eingriffs. Ihr Effekt auf die methodische Qualität der Fachbeiträge zu Fledermäusen ist jedoch gering. Meist kommen im Rahmen der speziellen artenschutzrechtlichen Prüfung zu Fledermäusen die Quartierbaumsuche, Netzfang, unterschiedliche Varianten des akustischen Monitorings (aktiv und passiv) sowie die Radiotelemetrie zum Einsatz. Insbesondere bei der bevorzugt empfohlenen akustischen Erfassung mindern zahlreiche methodische Probleme auf der technischen und der analytischen Ebene die Aussagekraft. Auch der Erfolg des Fangs von Fledermäusen mit Netzen hängt von zahlreichen Parametern ab. Die Quartierbaumerfassung lässt sich in ihrem Erfolg deutlich durch die Radiotelemetrie verbessern. Zur sinnvollen Quantifizierung des Lebensraumanspruchs einer Fledermauspopulation jedoch werden mittels Radiotelemetrie in der Regel zu wenige Tiere zu kurz untersucht. Die Bewertung der erhobenen Daten, hier gezeigt anhand akustisch ermittelter Aktivitätsdichten, erfolgt subjektiv, da Bewertungskriterien fehlen. Die am häufigsten empfohlenen und somit umgesetzten Methoden der Konfliktvermeidung und -minimierung sind CEF- (= Continued Ecological Function) und FCS-Maßnahmen (= Favourable Conservation Status) sowie das Gondelmonitoring und die selektive Abschaltung der WEA. Auch diese Maßnahmen entfalten z. T. Schwächen; die Bewahrung und Entwicklung von Waldstandorten als/zu ökologisch wertvollen Lebensräumen sowie die Verminderung der Schlagopferzahl durch spezielle Algorithmen (ProBat-Tool) sehen wir jedoch als sinnvoll an. Abschließend formulieren wir Anregungen zur Verbesserung und Objektivierung der Eingriffsplanung von WEA im Wald.
Summary
The development of wind energy is concentrating in forests, as windy and thus economically favourable sites can often be found here. However, the conflict with species conservation in general and bat conservation in particular is especially high in forests. We here examine the impact assessment on bats in the context of the legally prescribed normative framework in wind farm planning in the forest – from the study design to the methods used and the assessment itself. With regard to bats, the focus here is on avoiding direct killing and reducing the impairment of their habitat. Guidance documents for the German federal states define the extent of the surveys, the survey methods, and the spatial and temporal scope of a survey. They also recommend measures to compensate for potential negative impacts of wind energy plants (WEP). However, their effect on the quality of the expert reports on bats is low. In most cases, the search for roost trees, mist netting, different types of acoustic monitoring (active and passive) and radio tracking are used. In particular, numerous methodological problems at the technical and analytical levels reduce the validity of acoustic surveys. The success of mist netting bats also depends on numerous parameters. The success of roost tree surveys can be significantly improved by radio tracking. However, for a meaningful quantification of the habitat requirements of a bat population, radio tracking is usually used on too few animals for too short a time. The evaluation of the collected data, shown here on the basis of acoustically determined activity densities, is subjective because evaluation criteria are lacking. The most frequently recommended and thus implemented methods of conflict mitigation are CEF (= Continued Ecological Function and FCS (= Favourable Conservation Status) measures as well as nacelle monitoring and selective shut-down of wind turbines. These measures also show some weaknesses, but we consider the maintenance and development of forest sites as or into ecologically valuable habitats, as well as the reduction of the number of bat fatalities by means of specific algorithms (ProBat tool), to be sensible. Finally, we make suggestions for improving and objectifying the impact assessment of wind-energy facilities in forests.
... However, wind energy production is not necessarily ecologically neutral (Gibson et al., 2017). Many flying animals collide with and die at WT (e.g., Thaxter et al., 2017;Voigt, 2020). Among aerial vertebrates, aerial-hawking bats are particularly vulnerable at WT (Arnett et al., 2016). ...
Large numbers of bats are killed at wind turbines worldwide. To formulate mitigation measures such as curtailment, recent approaches relate the acoustic activity of bats around reference turbines to casualties to extrapolate fatality rates at turbines where only acoustic surveys are conducted. Here, we modeled how sensitive this approach is when spatial distributions of bats vary within the rotor-swept zone, and when the coverage of acoustic monitoring deteriorates, for example, with increasing turbine size. The predictive power of acoustic surveys was high for uniform or random distributions of bats. A concentration of bat passes around the nacelle or at the lower portion of the risk zone caused an overestimation of bat activity when ultrasonic microphones were pointed downwards at the nacelle. Conversely, a concentration of bat passes at the edge or at the top portion of the risk zone caused an underestimation of bat activity. These effects increased as the coverage of the acoustic monitoring decreased. Extrapolated fatality rates may not necessarily match with real conditions without knowledge of the spatial distribution of bats, particularly when the risk zone is poorly covered by acoustic monitoring, when spatial distributions are skewed and when turbines are large or frequencies of echolocating bats high. We argue that the predictive power of acoustic surveys is sufficiently strong for nonrandom or nonuniform distributions when validated by carcass searches and by complementary studies on the spatial distribution of bats at turbines.
... onshore wind turbines in Germany are currently operating without any curtailing restrictions for bat conservation (Fritze et al., 2019;KNE, 2020). Based on the conservative estimate of only 10 bat fatalities per year and wind turbine and the aforementioned proportion of turbines operating with curtailment, cumulative fatality numbers would amount to $240.000 killed bats per year for Germany alone, of which 32% are thought to be common noctule bats (Voigt, 2020). Although these numbers bear a high level of uncertainty, they hint toward the magnitude of the impact that wind turbines may have on bat populations. ...
Agricultural practice has led to landscape simplification and biodiversity decline, yet recently, energy‐producing infrastructures, such as wind turbines, have been added to these simplified agroecosystems, turning them into multi‐functional energy‐agroecosystems. Here, we studied the trophic interactions of bats killed at wind turbines using a DNA metabarcoding approach to shed light on how turbine‐related bat fatalities may possibly affect local habitats. Specifically, we identified insect DNA in the stomachs of common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) killed by wind turbines in Germany to infer in which habitats these bats hunted. Common noctule bats consumed a wide variety of insects from different habitats, ranging from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., wetlands, farmland, forests, and grasslands). Agricultural and silvicultural pest insects made up about 20% of insect species consumed by the studied bats. Our study suggests that the potential damage of wind energy production goes beyond the loss of bats and the decline of bat populations. Bat fatalities at wind turbines may lead to the loss of trophic interactions and ecosystem services provided by bats, which may add to the functional simplification and impaired crop production, respectively, in multi‐functional ecosystems. Global energy production from wind power is constantly increasing, with unforeseen consequences for wildlife populations and ecosystems. Our results highlight that bat fatalities at wind turbines lead to the loss of trophic interactions and ecosystem services provided by bats, which may add to the functional simplification of ecosystems and impaired crop production in multi‐functional ecosystems with wind turbine facilities.
... Using such trials, past studies estimated the annual fatality rates to range between 1.5 and 30 bats per wind turbine in Europe, averaging 14.3 ± 9.4 (one standard deviation) bats killed per wind turbines per year (calculated from values in: Brinkmann et al., 2011, Zahn et al., 2014, NATURA and SWILD, 2018, Mȃntoiu et al., 2020. This seemingly small number adds up to thousands or hundreds of thousands of killed bats per year in countries with large numbers of wind turbines (Voigt et al., 2015;Hayes, 2013;Voigt, 2020). However, most turbines for which fatality rates were estimated are now operating under a curtailment scheme, at least in Germany and some other parts of Europe (e.g. ...
... Noting that 30.000 onshore wind turbines are active as of 2021, this translates to more than 20.000 onshore wind turbines operating without curtailment. Assuming high fatality rates at these old wind turbines, it is likely that these turbines generate more than 200.000 bat casualties per year in Germany (Voigt et al., 2015;Voigt, 2020). From a global perspective, the siting of turbines is usually not practiced in light of conservation goals and most wind turbines are not operating with any curtailment. ...
Bats are protected by national and international legislation in European countries, yet many species, particularly migratory aerial insectivores, collide with wind turbines which counteracts conservation efforts. Within the European Union it is legally required to curtail the operation of wind turbines at periods of high bat activity, yet this is not practiced at old wind turbines. Based on data from the national carcass repository in Germany and from our own carcass searches at a wind park with three turbines west of Berlin, we evaluated the magnitude of bat casualties at old, potentially mal-sited wind turbines operating without curtailment. We report 88 documented bat carcasses collected by various searchers over the 20-year operation period of this wind park from 2001 to 2021. Common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) and common pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) were most often found dead at these turbines. Our search campaign in August and September 2021 yielded a total of 18 carcasses. We estimated that at least 209 bats were likely killed during our field survey, yielding more than 70 casualties/wind turbine or 39 casualties/MW in two months. Since our campaign covered only part of the migration season, we consider this value as an underestimate. The 20-year period of the wind park emphasises the substantial impact old turbines may have on bat individuals and populations when operating without curtailments. We call for reconsidering the operation procedures of old wind turbines to stop the continuous loss of bats in Germany and other countries where turbine curtailments are even less practiced than in Germany.
... The construction stop and the lawsuit result in additional costs. -Ecological reasons for construction stop: Environmentalists have discovered that strictly protected animals live on the land to be built on [27]. For this reason, the Higher Administrative Court in Mannheim has halted further construction for the time being in summary proceedings and the project is delayed. ...
The energy transition in Germany is planned to take place by 2045. It includes the complete abandonment of fossil and nuclear energy sources, a nationwide expansion of renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind and hydropower as well as the reduction of energy consumption. Those measurements will contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Our work aims to give citizens an intuitive insight into the energy transition and provide a better understanding through visualization and playful, realistic interaction.
In this paper, the concept of an educational game for citizens is explained, in which the topic of renewable energies is to be conveyed to them playfully. Particular attention is paid to the calculations necessary for the game logic and the three-dimensional interactive visualization. The 3D environment and the application logic is developed with the virtual reality engine PolyVR and ported for its experience within a web browser. The implementation of this work focuses on wind power and the German province Baden-Württemberg but can be extended analogously for other forms of renewable energies to fully depict the energy transition in Germany.
KeywordsVitual realitySerious game3D web game3D simulationGreen gamesEnvironmental gamesPublic engagementEnergy transitionClimate changeClimate goalsRenewable energy sources
This paper presents the results of bats detected with marine radar and their validation with acoustic detectors in the vicinity of a wind turbine with a hub height of 120 m. Bat detectors are widely used by researchers, even though the common acoustic detectors can cover only a relatively small volume. In contrast, radar technology can overcome this shortcoming by offering a large detection volume, fully covering the rotor-swept areas of modern wind turbines. Our study focused on the common noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula). The measurement setup consisted of a portable X-band pulse radar with a modified radar antenna, a clutter shielding fence, and an acoustic bat detector installed in the wind turbine’s nacelle. The radar’s detection range was evaluated using an analytical simulation model. We developed a methodology based on a strict set of criteria for selecting suitable radar data, acoustic data and identified bat tracks. By applying this methodology, the study data was limited to time intervals with an average duration of 48 s, which is equal to approximately 20 radar images. For these time intervals, 323 bat tracks were identified. The most common bat speed was extracted to be between 9 and 10 m/s, matching the values found in the literature. Of the 323 identified bat tracks passed within 80 m of the acoustic detector, 32% had the potential to be associated with bat calls due to their timing, directionality, and distance to the acoustic bat detector. The remaining 68% passed within the studied radar detection volume but out of the detection volume of the acoustic bat detector. A comparison of recorded radar echoes with the expected simulated values indicated that the in-flight radar cross-section of recorded common noctule bats was mostly between 1.0 and 5.0 cm², which is consistent with the values found in the literature for similar sized wildlife.
As part of the EU Emergency Regulation, the German government decided to significantly accelerate the approval procedures for the expansion of wind turbines, e.g. by largely reducing ecological impact assessments, allowing the use of wind turbines in landscape conservation areas to achieve fixed wind energy area contribution values. In order to increase the pressure on the federal states, the possibility of rejecting a wind power project because of species conservation by the authorities is no longer possible. Here, we summarize the main legal changes in relation to bat protection and discuss the implications for practice. Furthermore, scientific studies were analysed to determine whether the current legal changes still allow for evidence-based bat protection. As a conclusion, the current regulations do not adhere with best conservation practice and likely have a negative impact on the bat populations. To mitigate this problem, we developed numerous proposals on how the expansion of wind turbines can be made compatible with species conservation. For example, forests and landscape conservation areas should be kept wind turbine free.
