Data from: Out of sight of wind turbines – reindeer response to wind farms in operation

To meet the expanding land use required for wind energy development a better understanding of the effects on terrestrial animals’ responses to such development is required. Using GPS-data from 50 freely ranging female reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in the Malå reindeer herding community, Sweden, we determined reindeer calving sites and estimated reindeer habitat selection using resource selection functions (RSF). RSFs were estimated at both second- (selection of home range) and third-order (selection within home range) scale in relation to environmental variables, wind farm (WF) development phase (before construction, construction, and operation), distance to the WFs and at the second-order scale whether the wind turbines were in or out of sight of the reindeer. We found that the distance between reindeer calving site and wind farms increased during the operation phase, compared to before construction. At both scales of selection we found a significant decrease in habitat selection of areas in proximity of the WFs, in the same comparison. The results also revealed a shift in home range selection away from habitats where wind turbines became visible towards habitats where the wind turbines were obscured by topography (increase in use by 79% at 5 km). We interpret the reindeer shift in home range selection as an effect of the wind turbines per se. Using topography and land cover information together with the positions of wind turbines could therefore help identify sensitive habitats for reindeer and improve the planning and placement of WFs. In addition, we found that operation phase of these WFs had a stronger adverse impact on reindeer habitat selection than the construction phase. Thus, the continuous running of the wind turbines making a sound both day and night seemed to have disturbed the reindeer more than the sudden sounds and increased human activity during construction work.

为适配风电开发不断扩张的土地使用需求，亟需更深入理解风电开发对陆生动物行为响应的影响。本研究利用瑞典马尔卡（Malå）驯鹿放牧群落中50头自由活动的雌性驯鹿（*Rangifer tarandus*）的GPS定位数据，确定了驯鹿的产犊位点，并通过资源选择函数（resource selection functions, RSF）评估了驯鹿的生境选择偏好。本研究分别在二阶尺度（家域选择）与三阶尺度（家域内生境选择）下，基于环境变量、风电场（wind farm, WF）开发阶段（建设前、建设中与运营中）、距风电场的距离，以及二阶尺度下风力涡轮机是否处于驯鹿视野范围内，对资源选择函数进行了估算。研究发现，相较于建设前阶段，运营阶段驯鹿产犊位点与风电场之间的距离有所增加。在上述两类选择尺度下，相较建设前阶段，本研究均发现驯鹿对风电场邻近区域的生境选择偏好显著降低。研究结果还显示，驯鹿的家域选择发生了偏移：从风力涡轮机可见的生境，转向风力涡轮机被地形遮蔽的生境（5公里范围内的生境利用比例提升79%）。本研究将驯鹿家域选择的偏移归因于风力涡轮机本身的影响。因此，结合地形、土地覆盖信息与风力涡轮机的位置数据，有助于识别驯鹿的敏感生境，进而优化风电场的规划与布局。此外，本研究发现，相较于建设阶段，风电场的运营阶段对驯鹿生境选择的负面影响更强。由此可见，风力涡轮机昼夜持续运转产生的噪音，相较建设期间的突发噪音与加剧的人类活动，对驯鹿的干扰更为显著。