[en] Wind turbines negatively affect bats through mortality, which can be exacerbated by attraction behaviours, and loss of habitat use caused by avoidance behaviours. However, potential mechanisms driving bat responses to wind turbines are still poorly understood. This is especially true of red aviation lighting, designed to prevent aircraft collisions and implemented in many countries, that could be perceived by bats from a long distance and lead to a response at a large spatial scale. We assessed the role of wind turbine red aviation lighting in the behavioural responses (attraction and avoidance) of bats. To this end, we acoustically quantified the activity of three functional bat guilds (long-, medium- and short-range echolocators) at three wind farms using a triplet sampling design: recordings were conducted simultaneously at (i) wind turbines illuminated throughout the night, (ii) wind turbines equipped with the aircraft detection lighting system (ADLS) and illuminated an average of 12% of the night and (iii) control sites without nearby wind turbine. Thirteen and nine triplets were sampled at wooded edges ~250 m from the nearest wind turbine and in open habitats at the base of the turbine, respectively, during two consecutive nights in June 2021 in the Uckermark district (north-east Germany). We found that acoustic activity was higher overall at sites near wind turbines illuminated throughout the night than at control sites for all functional guilds and both at wooded edges and in open habitats, indicating local attraction behaviours towards wind turbines that might increase collision risks. Activity at sites near wind turbines with ADLS was lower overall than at sites near wind turbines illuminated throughout the night, and similar to control sites, suggesting that part-night lighting could contribute to reducing bat attraction towards wind turbines. Synthesis and applications. This study provides empirical evidence that attraction behaviour of bats towards wind turbines is driven, at least partially, by red aviation lighting. We also demonstrate that smart lighting of wind turbines, such as the ADLS, could cost-effectively help mitigate disruption of bat habitat use and the associated collision risks. Implementing adaptive lighting strategies could therefore represent a practical step towards balancing wind energy development with bat conservation.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Larnoy, Gaëlle ✱; Auddicé Biodiversité—ZAC du Chevalement, Roost-Warendin, France
Verniest, Fabien ✱; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Station de Biologie Marine, Concarneau Cedex, France
Kerbiriou, Christian ; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Station de Biologie Marine, Concarneau Cedex, France
Le Viol, Isabelle ; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Station de Biologie Marine, Concarneau Cedex, France
Lefebvre, Pauline; Auddicé Biodiversité—ZAC du Chevalement, Roost-Warendin, France
Valet, Nicolas; Auddicé Biodiversité—ZAC du Chevalement, Roost-Warendin, France
BARRE, Kevin ✱; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) > Department of Engineering (DoE) ; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Station de Biologie Marine, Concarneau Cedex, France
Leroux, Camille ✱; Auddicé Biodiversité—ZAC du Chevalement, Roost-Warendin, France ; Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Station de Biologie Marine, Concarneau Cedex, France
✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Minimizing aviation lighting duration reduces bat attraction to wind turbines
Agence de la transition écologique Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie
Funding text :
We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that significantly improved the quality of the manuscript. We are grateful to C. Herminet for her contribution to the study design and data collection. We also thank E. Tr\u00E9buchet and M. Cl\u00E9ment\u2010Lacroix for the manual verification of automatic identifications, Q. Grisouard for helping with the figures and P. Bach and C. Roemer for helping with the German version of the abstract. We are grateful to Dark Sky, ENERTRAG SE, ENERTRAG Systemtechnik, the Kompetenzzentrum Naturschutz und Energiewende, the Landesamt f\u00FCr Umwelt Brandenburg, the Ministerium f\u00FCr Infrastruktur und Landesplanung, the Uckermark district, M. Fritze, Y. Gager and C. Voigt for their invaluable help in the search for information on the operation and characteristics of wind turbines. This work was supported by the Agence de la transition \u00E9cologique (ADEME), the Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (Grant No. 2019/1566) and Auddic\u00E9 biodiversit\u00E9.We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that significantly improved the quality of the manuscript. We are grateful to C. Herminet for her contribution to the study design and data collection. We also thank E. Tr\u00E9buchet and M. Cl\u00E9ment-Lacroix for the manual verification of automatic identifications, Q. Grisouard for helping with the figures and P. Bach and C. Roemer for helping with the German version of the abstract. We are grateful to Dark Sky, ENERTRAG SE, ENERTRAG Systemtechnik, the Kompetenzzentrum Naturschutz und Energiewende, the Landesamt f\u00FCr Umwelt Brandenburg, the Ministerium f\u00FCr Infrastruktur und Landesplanung, the Uckermark district, M. Fritze, Y. Gager and C. Voigt for their invaluable help in the search for information on the operation and characteristics of wind turbines. This work was supported by the Agence de la transition \u00E9cologique (ADEME), the Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (Grant No. 2019/1566) and Auddic\u00E9 biodiversit\u00E9.
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