Project description:We have been the first to investigate whether long-lived geese and ducks can detect and avoid a large offshore wind farm by tracking their diurnal migration patterns with radar. We found that the percentage of flocks entering the wind farm area decreased significantly (by a factor 4.5) from pre-construction to initial operation. At night, migrating flocks were more prone to enter the wind farm but counteracted the higher risk of collision in the dark by increasing their distance from individual turbines and flying in the corridors between turbines. Overall, less than 1% of the ducks and geese migrated close enough to the turbines to be at any risk of collision.
Project description:Worldwide growth of offshore renewable energy production will provide marine organisms with new hard substrate for colonization in terms of artificial reefs. The artificial reef effect is important when planning offshore installations since it can create habitat enhancement. Wind power is the most advanced technology within offshore renewable energy sources and there is an urgent need to study its impacts on the marine environment. To test the hypothesis that offshore wind power increases the abundance of reef species relative to a reference area, we conduct an experiment on the model species common shore crab (Carcinus maenas).Overall, 3962 crabs were captured, observed, marked and released in 2011 and 1995 crabs in 2012. Additionally, carapace size, sex distribution, color morphs and body condition was recorded from captured crabs. We observed very low recapture rates at all sites during both years which made evaluating differences in population sizes very difficult. However, we were able to estimate population densities from the capture record for all three sites. There was no obvious artificial reef effect in the Lillgrund wind farm, but a spill-over effect to nearby habitats cannot be excluded. We could not find any effect of the wind farm on either, morphs, sex distribution or condition of the common shore crab. Our study found no evidence that Lillgrund wind farm has a negative effect on populations of the common shore crab. This study provides the first quantitative and experimental data on the common shore crab in relation to offshore wind farms.
Project description:Wind is one of the most prevalent environmental forces entraining plants to develop various mechano-responses, collectively called thigmomorphogenesis. Largely unknown is how plants transduce the complex wind force signals downstream to nuclear events and the development of thigmomorphogenic phenotype or anemotropic response. To identify molecular components of the wind drag force signaling, two force-regulated phosphoproteins, identified from our previous phosphoproteomic study of Arabidopsis touch response, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MKK1) and 2 (MKK2), were selected for performing in planta TurboID (ID)-based proximity-labeling (PL) proteomics. This quantitative biotinylproteomics was separately performed on MKK1-ID and MKK2-ID transgenic plants, respectively, using the TurboID overexpression transgenics as a universal control. This quantitative biotinylproteomic work successfully identified 11 and 71 MKK1- and MKK2 - associated proteins, respectively. A WInd-Related Kinase 1 (WIRK1), previously known as Rapidly Accelerated Fibrosarcoma 36 protein (RAF36), was eventually found to be a common interactor for both MKK1 and MKK2 kinases. Further molecular biology studies of the Arabidopsis RAF36 kinase found that it plays a role in wind regulation of the expression of touch-responsive TCH3 and CML38 genes and the phosphorylation of a touch-regulated PATL3 phosphoprotein. Measurement of leaf morphology and shoot gravitropic response of wirk1-1 mutant revealed that the WIRK1 gene is involved in both wind response and gravitropism of Arabidopsis, suggesting that WIRK1 protein may serve as the crosstalk point among multiple signal transduction pathways of both gravitropic and wind responses. It is likely that gravity force signaling may be an integral part of the wind mechano-signaling network in various parts of plant organs.
Project description:Quantifying the likely effects of offshore wind farms on wildlife is fundamental before permission for development can be granted by any Determining Authority. The effects on marine top predators from displacement from important habitat are key concerns during offshore wind farm construction and operation. In this respect, we present evidence for no significant displacement from a UK offshore wind farm for two broadly distributed species of conservation concern: common guillemot (Uria aalge) and harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). Data were collected during boat-based line transect surveys across a 360 km2 study area that included the Robin Rigg offshore wind farm. Surveys were conducted over 10 years across the preconstruction, construction, and operational phases of the development. Changes in guillemot and harbor porpoise abundance and distribution in response to offshore wind farm construction and operation were estimated using generalized mixed models to test for evidence of displacement. Both common guillemot and harbor porpoise were present across the Robin Rigg study area throughout all three development phases. There was a significant reduction in relative harbor porpoise abundance both within and surrounding the Robin Rigg offshore wind farm during construction, but no significant difference was detected between the preconstruction and operational phases. Relative common guillemot abundance remained similar within the Robin Rigg offshore wind farm across all development phases. Offshore wind farms have the potential to negatively affect wildlife, but further evidence regarding the magnitude of effect is needed. The empirical data presented here for two marine top predators provide a valuable addition to the evidence base, allowing future decision making to be improved by reducing the uncertainty of displacement effects and increasing the accuracy of impact assessments.
Project description:This study compares gene expression in the testis of three offshore (Pelican Shoal) and three near-shore (Tingler Island) adult male queen conchs (Strombus gigas) collected from the wild on February 15, 2007.
Project description:A developmental series of wind-treated Populus leaf tissue was subjected to array analyses in order to address the issue of age-dependent responsiveness to environmental changes. The following developmental stages were defined for the experiment: Y – “youngest leaf” including the shoot tip = smallest fully enrolled leaf; E – “expanded leaf” = oldest leaf that had not reached full leaf thickness; M – “mature leaf” = 5th leaf below E = has reached full leaf expansion and full leaf thickness; O – “old leaf” = 5th leaf below E. Keywords: transcription profiling Two-condition experiment, control (K) vs. Wind-treated (W) leaves. Biological replicates: 3 control (1-3), wind-exposed (1-3), independently grown and harvested. One swap replicate per array.
Project description:ObjectivesTo assess the quality of sleep of employees in the German offshore wind industry and to explore factors associated with poor sleep quality.DesignWeb-based cross-sectional survey.SettingOffshore companies operating in wind farms within the German exclusive economic zone.ParticipantsWorkers with regular offshore commitments and at least 28 days spent offshore in the past year (n=268).Outcome measuresSleep quality in the past 4 weeks, troubles falling asleep or sleeping through in the past 4 weeks, differences in sleep quality between offshore deployments and onshore leaves.ResultsHaving problems with sleep onset was reported by 9.5% of the respondents. 16.5% reported troubles with maintaining sleep three or more times per week. The overall quality of sleep was rated as very bad by only 1.7% of the participants. 47.9% of the workers reported their quality of sleep to be worse during offshore commitments than when being onshore. Higher levels of exposition to noise, vibrations and poor air quality were associated with sleeping troubles and poorer sleep quality. Sharing the sleep cabin with colleagues was associated with troubles sleeping through. No association was found for working in rotating shifts and for regularity of the offshore commitments.ConclusionsWorkers in our study showed frequent sleep problems and poorer sleep quality offshore than onshore. Our results indicate that higher degrees of exposure to noise, vibrations and artificial ventilation are associated with poor sleep quality rather than organisational factors such as shift-work and type of working schedule. In view of the high demands of the offshore workplace and the workers' particular recovery needs, addressing sleep disorders should be part of any health and safety management strategy for this workplace.
Project description:The presented data collection has been used in the paper Multi-objective optimization of a uniformly distributed offshore wind farm considering both economic factors and visual impact, but can be used for a realistic evaluation of the annual energy production of an offshore wind farm and/or the calculation of the project investment cost. It contains realistic wind data, a bathymetric map, the definition of the coast shoreline and forbidden zones, as well as the acquisition and installation cost for the most important components influencing the investment and operation costs.
Project description:Offshore wind farms are widely adopted by coastal countries to obtain clean and green energy; their environmental impact has gained an increasing amount of attention. Although offshore wind farm datasets are commercially available via energy industries, records of the exact spatial distribution of individual wind turbines and their construction trajectories are rather incomplete, especially at the global level. Here, we construct a global remote sensing-based offshore wind turbine (OWT) database derived from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) time-series images from 2015 to 2019. We developed a percentile-based yearly SAR image collection reduction and autoadaptive threshold algorithm in the Google Earth Engine platform to identify the spatiotemporal distribution of global OWTs. By 2019, 6,924 wind turbines were constructed in 14 coastal nations. An algorithm performance analysis and validation were performed, and the extraction accuracies exceeded 99% using an independent validation dataset. This dataset could further our understanding of the environmental impact of OWTs and support effective marine spatial planning for sustainable development.