Summary
1. The evidence for anthropogenically induced climate change is overwhelming with the production of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels being a key driver. In response, many governments have initiated programmes of energy production from renewable sources.

2. The marine environment presents a relatively untapped energy source and offshore installations are likely to produce a significant proportion of future energy production. Wind power is the most advanced, with development of wave and tidal energy conversion devices expected to increase worldwide in the near future.

3. Concerns over the potential impacts on biodiversity of marine renewable energy installations (MREI) include: habitat loss, collision risks, noise and electromagnetic fields. These factors have been posited as having potentially important negative environmental impacts.

4. Conversely, we suggest that if appropriately managed and designed, MREI may increase local biodiversity and potentially benefit the wider marine environment. Installations have the capacity to act as both artificial reefs and fish aggregation devices, which have been used previously to facilitate restoration of damaged ecosystems, and de facto marine-protected areas, which have proven successful in enhancing both biodiversity and fisheries.

5. The deployment of MREI has the potential to cause conflict among interest groups including energy companies, the fishing sector and environmental groups. Conflicts should be minimized by integrating key stakeholders into the design, siting, construction and operational phases of the installations, and by providing clear evidence of their potential environmental benefits.

6. Synthesis and applications. MREI have the potential to be both detrimental and beneficial to the environment but the evidence base remains limited. To allow for full biodiversity impacts to be assessed, there exists an urgent need for additional multi and inter-disciplinary research in this area ranging from engineering to policy. Whilst there are a number of factors to be considered, one of the key decisions facing current policy makers is where installations should be sited, and, dependent upon site, whether they should be designed to either minimize negative environmental impacts or as facilitators of ecosystem restoration.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01697.x

Marine renewable energy: potential benefits to biodiversity? An urgent call for research

Since the beginning of industrialization, energy consumption has increased far more rapidly than the number of people on the planet. It is known that the consumption of energy is amazingly high and the fossil based resources may not be able to provide energy for the whole world as these resources will be used up in the near future. Hence, renewable energy expected to play an important role in handling the demand of the energy required along with environmental pollution prevention. The impacts of the wind energy on the environment are important to be studied before any wind firm construction or a decision is made. Although many countries showing great interest towards renewable or green energy generation, negative perception of wind energy is increasingly evident that may prevent the installation of the wind energy in some countries. This paper compiled latest literatures in terms of thesis (MS and PhD), journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, books, and web materials about the environmental impacts of wind energy. This paper also includes the comparative study of wind energy, problems, solutions and suggestion as a result of the implementation of wind turbine. Positive and negative impacts of wind energy have been broadly explained as well. It has been found that this source of energy will reduce environmental pollution and water consumption. However, it has noise pollution, visual interference and negative impacts on wildlife.

https://www.beren.sakarya.edu.tr/sites/beren.sakarya.edu.tr/file/1380752968-02-Windenergy.pdf.pdf

Environmental impact of wind energy

WE found, on experimental grounds in Article I, that the field of air‐flow past a short body of low resistance shape, such as an aerofoil, comprises two dissimilar parts: (a) a thin boundary layer enveloping the body and dominated by viscous effects, and (b) a motion outside the boundary layer in which viscosity is much less important. It will be remembered that in the external motion occur the large pressure changes, which, transmitted through the boundary layer, account for nearly all the lift and for part of the drag. These pressures we observed to be calculable from the velocities without appreciable error by Bernoulli's equation. In the present Article we confine attention to this external flow, assuming it to be steady, incompressible, and inviscid. Its dependence upon (a), already discussed to some extent, we ignore; the boundary layer is conceived to be everywhere very thin, so that the only role it plays is to allow of relative velocity at the surface of the body. The assumptions made, excepting that of incompressibility, will appear drastic, and it will not be surprising if some of our deductions prove discordant with experimental fact. Nevertheless, they lead to a theory which finds many applications and uses in real fluid motion, and, in particular, gives an intimate view of aerofoil flow that is very close to the truth. It is convenient to develop our reasoning in analytical terms and for simplicity to restrict the flow to two dimensions (Article 1, §5). But the engineer will find special scope in this part of aerodynamics for graphical methods in the solution of particular problems.

Aerodynamics for Engineers

https://docs.wind-watch.org/Dai-et-al-Environmental-issues-and-wind-energy-2015.pdf

Environmental issues associated with wind energy – A review

Of all the renewable energy sources (RESs)―except direct solar heat and light―wind energy is believed to have the least adverse environmental impacts. It is also one of the RES which has become economically affordable much before several other RESs have. As a result, next to biomass (and excluding large hydro), wind energy is the RES being most extensively tapped by the world at present. Despite carrying the drawback of intermittency, wind energy has found favor due to its perceived twin virtues of relatively lesser production cost and environment-friendliness. But with increasing use of turbines for harnessing wind energy, the adverse environmental impacts of this RES are increasingly coming to light. The present paper summarizes the current understanding of these impacts and assesses the challenges they are posing. One among the major hurdles has been the NYMBI (not in my backyard) syndrome due to which there is increasing emphasis on installing windfarms several kilometers offshore. But such moves have serious implications for marine life which is already under great stress due to impacts of overfishing, marine pollution, global warming, ozone hole and ocean acidification. Evidence is also emerging that the adverse impacts of wind power plants on wildlife, especially birds and bats, are likely to be much greater than is reflected in the hitherto reported figures of individuals killed per turbine. Likewise recent findings on the impact of noise and flicker generated by the wind turbines indicate that these can have traumatic impacts on individuals who have certain predispositions. But the greatest of emerging concerns is the likely impact of large wind farms on the weather, and possibly the climate. The prospects of wind energy are discussed in the backdrop of these and other rising environmental concerns.

http://www.sesync.org/sites/default/files/resources/Tabassum-Abbasi%20et%20al.%202014.pdf

Wind energy: Increasing deployment, rising environmental concerns

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(08)00751-3.pdf

Barotrauma is a significant cause of bat fatalities at wind turbines

The reproductive benefits of maintaining a high body temperature (Tb) are well understood, but costs may be prohibitively high. Many small mammals raise offspring in insulated nests, burrows, or roosts, and may form communal maternity colonies, all of which are behaviors that reduce the costs of maintaining Tb. However, some temperate-zone bats are solitary and raise young in exposed roosts. Little is known about how these species maintain energy balance in the face of high thermoregulatory costs, and whether they stay warm invariably for reproductive benefits, or use a more adaptive thermoregulatory strategy. We studied Tb patterns in response to foraging conditions, weather, and pup age in free-ranging adult and juvenile hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus). Lactating females regularly entered torpor, although its use was most extensive following poor foraging conditions, during inclement weather, and when pups were young. Juvenile L. cinereus appeared capable of staying warm from 3 days of age, but used torpor throughout development, gradually decreasing its use as they grew. Our results indicate that for this species, torpor is important throughout lactation, and torpor use changes in response to individually specific trade-offs between energetic cost and developmental benefit. We suggest that the costs of active thermoregulation during early development of L. cinereus pups outweigh the benefits of staying warm, and an extended growing season (as a result of their migratory nature) is more conducive to using torpor. Finally, we suggest that torpor use during lactation is dynamic and adaptive. Fine-scale changes within reproductive stages need to be considered, rather than broadly assessing thermoregulatory behavior among stages.

https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-mammalogy/volume-94/issue-2/12-MAMM-A-178.1/Thermoregulation-during-reproduction-in-the-solitary-foliage-roosting-hoary-bat/10.1644/12-MAMM-A-178.1.pdf

Thermoregulation during reproduction in the solitary, foliage-roosting hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus)

The migratory tree-roosting hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) and silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) are among the bat species with the highest reported prevalence of rabies in North America. However, bats submitted for rabies testing typically have been those that have come in contact with humans or pets. Given the roosting ecology of L. cinereus and L. noctivagans, contact with healthy individuals of these species is expected to be rare, with a bias in contact and submission of infected individuals and thus an overestimation of rabies prevalence. We tested 121 L. cinereus and 96 L. noctivagans specimens, collected during mortality surveys at wind energy facilities in Southern Alberta, Canada in 2007 and 2008, for rabies. None of the L. cinereus (0%) and one L. noctivagans (1%) tested positive for rabies. Prevalence of rabies was significantly lower than previously reported estimates, passive and active, for L. cinereus and L. noctivagans. In a review of the literature including multiple bat speci...

https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-wildlife-diseases/volume-47/issue-1/0090-3558-47.1.64/RABIES-PREVALENCE-IN-MIGRATORY-TREE-BATS-IN-ALBERTA-AND-THE/10.7589/0090-3558-47.1.64.pdf

Rabies prevalence in migratory tree-bats in alberta and the influence of roosting ecology and sampling method on reported prevalence of rabies in bats

Heterothermy is a widespread, adaptive strategy used by many species of bird and mammal to conserve energy during periods of energetic deficit, the expression of which varies greatly depending on the species and environment. A temporary, reversible reduction in metabolic rate and body temperature (i.e., torpor) is an adaptive response used by many species of birds and mammals to conserve energy during periods of resource scarcity. Long-term employment of torpor (i.e., hibernation) is a seasonally expressed phenotype, the genetic and regulated pathways of which can be found throughout all mammal lineages, including hibernators and nonhibernators alike. In mammals, adaptations that allow for hibernation can be classified as those involved in preparation for hibernation, metabolic reduction, continued cellular function and protection, and arousal. Key physiological changes involve seasonal regulation of metabolic hormones, a shift to largely using endogenous fuel sources (i.e., increased lipolysis), global down regulation of protein transcription by posttranslational modification and microRNA save for the increased production of a small number of protective proteins, shifts in membrane composition, and thermogenesis by brown adipose tissue. There is some evidence of cold acclimations in nonhibernators, such as during fetal development, but responses are limited and cursory, and eventually cellular damage occurs. Therefore, it appears that a complete suite of adaptations to metabolism, vital physiological functions, and thermogenic mechanisms is required for the successful expression of the hibernation phenotype.

/pdf/changes-to-metabolism-and-cell-physiology-that-enable-yh4iakcagk.pdf

Brandon J. Klug

Papers

Barotrauma is a significant cause of bat fatalities at wind turbines

Thermoregulation during reproduction in the solitary, foliage-roosting hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus)

Rabies prevalence in migratory tree-bats in alberta and the influence of roosting ecology and sampling method on reported prevalence of rabies in bats

Changes to Metabolism and Cell Physiology that Enable Mammalian Hibernation

Thermoregulation and roost selection by the solitary, tree-roosting hoary bat (lasiurus cinereus)