Data from: Bird and bat species' global vulnerability to collision mortality at wind farms revealed through a trait-based assessment

Mitigation of anthropogenic climate change involves deployments of renewable energy worldwide, including wind farms, which can pose a significant collision risk to volant animals. Most studies into the collision risk between species and wind turbines, however, have taken place in industrialized countries. Potential effects for many locations and species therefore remain unclear. To redress this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review of recorded collisions between birds and bats and wind turbines within developed countries. We related collision rate to species-level traits and turbine characteristics to quantify the potential vulnerability of 9538 bird and 888 bat species globally. Avian collision rate was affected by migratory strategy, dispersal distance and habitat associations, and bat collision rates were influenced by dispersal distance. For birds and bats, larger turbine capacity (megawatts) increased collision rates; however, deploying a smaller number of large turbines with greater energy output reduced total collision risk per unit energy output, although bat mortality increased again with the largest turbines. Areas with high concentrations of vulnerable species were also identified, including migration corridors. Our results can therefore guide wind farm design and location to reduce the risk of large-scale animal mortality. This is the first quantitative global assessment of the relative collision vulnerability of species groups with wind turbines, providing valuable guidance for minimizing potentially serious negative impacts on biodiversity.

应对人为气候变化（anthropogenic climate change）需在全球范围内部署可再生能源，其中风电场（wind farm）可能对飞行类动物构成显著的碰撞风险。然而，现有针对物种与风力涡轮机（wind turbine）碰撞风险的研究大多集中于工业化国家，因此全球诸多区域及物种所受的潜在影响仍不明晰。为弥补这一研究空白，我们针对发达国家境内已记录的鸟类、蝙蝠与风力涡轮机的碰撞事件开展了系统性文献综述。我们将碰撞发生率与物种层面的性状及涡轮机特征相关联，以量化全球9538种鸟类及888种蝙蝠的潜在受威胁脆弱性。鸟类碰撞发生率受迁徙策略、扩散距离及栖息地关联的影响，而蝙蝠碰撞发生率则受扩散距离的调控。对于鸟类与蝙蝠而言，涡轮机容量（兆瓦，megawatts）越大，碰撞发生率越高；不过，部署数量更少但单机发电出力更高的大型涡轮机，可降低单位能源产出的总碰撞风险，尽管当使用超大规格涡轮机时，蝙蝠死亡率会再次上升。研究还识别出了脆弱物种高度集中的区域，其中包括迁徙廊道（migration corridor）。因此，本研究结果可为风电场的设计与选址提供指导，以降低大规模动物死亡的风险。本研究是首个针对各物种类群与风力涡轮机相对碰撞脆弱性的全球定量评估，可为最大限度减轻对生物多样性（biodiversity）的潜在严重负面影响提供宝贵参考。