Using weather radar to help minimize wind energy impacts on nocturnally migrating birds

As wind energy rapidly expands worldwide, information to minimize impacts of this development on biodiversity is urgently needed. Here we demonstrate how data collected by weather radar networks can inform placement and operation of wind facilities to reduce collisions and minimize habitat-related impacts for nocturnally migrating birds. We found over a third of nocturnal migrants flew through altitudes within the rotor-swept zone surrounding the North American Great Lakes, a continentally important migration corridor. Migrating birds concentrated in terrestrial stopover habitats within 20-km from shorelines, a distance well beyond the current guidelines for construction of new land-based facilities, and their distributions varied seasonally and at local and regional scales, creating predictable opportunities to minimize impacts from wind energy development and operation. Networked radar data are available across the U.S. and other countries and broad application of this approach could ...随着全球风电产业的快速扩张，亟需获取相关研究信息以降低该产业发展对生物多样性的负面影响。本研究展示了如何借助天气雷达网络（weather radar networks）采集的数据，为风电场的选址与运维提供决策依据，进而减少夜间迁徙鸟类的撞机风险，同时降低其栖息地相关的负面影响。研究发现，超过三分之一的夜间迁徙鸟类会飞越北美五大湖周边的风电机组旋翼扫掠区（rotor-swept zone）——这是一处具有大陆尺度重要性的鸟类迁徙通道。迁徙鸟类会集中在距海岸线20公里范围内的陆地停歇栖息地中，该距离远超当前新建陆地风电设施的建设导则要求；且其分布随季节、局地与区域尺度呈现动态变化，这为降低风电开发与运维的负面影响提供了可预判的优化路径。全美及其他多国均已部署联网雷达数据网络，该方法的大规模推广应用可……