Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Monitoring and Modeling Tree Bat (Genera: Lasiurus, Lasionycteris) Occurrence Using Acoustics on Structures off the Mid-Atlantic Coast—Implications for Offshore Wind Development

Show simple item record

dc.creator True, Michael C.
dc.creator Reynolds, Richard J.
dc.creator Ford, W. Mark
dc.date 2021-11-11T19:20:03Z
dc.date 2021-11-11T19:20:03Z
dc.date 2021-11-04
dc.date 2021-11-11T14:57:40Z
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T18:52:23Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T18:52:23Z
dc.identifier True, M.C.; Reynolds, R.J.; Ford, W.M. Monitoring and Modeling Tree Bat (Genera: Lasiurus, Lasionycteris) Occurrence Using Acoustics on Structures off the Mid-Atlantic Coast—Implications for Offshore Wind Development. Animals 2021, 11, 3146.
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10919/106602
dc.identifier https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113146
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/281613
dc.description In eastern North America, “tree bats” (Genera: <i>Lasiurus</i> and <i>Lasionycteris</i>) are highly susceptible to collisions with wind energy turbines and are known to fly offshore during migration. This raises concern about ongoing expansion of offshore wind-energy development off the Atlantic Coast. Season, atmospheric conditions, and site-level characteristics such as local habitat (e.g., forest coverage) have been shown to influence wind turbine collision rates by bats onshore, and therefore may be related to risk offshore. Therefore, to assess the factors affecting coastal presence of bats, we continuously gathered tree bat occurrence data using stationary acoustic recorders on five structures (four lighthouses on barrier islands and one light tower offshore) off the coast of Virginia, USA, across all seasons, 2012–2019. We used generalized additive models to describe tree bat occurrence on a nightly basis. We found that sites either indicated maternity or migratory seasonal occurrence patterns associated with local roosting resources, i.e., presence of trees. Across all sites, nightly occurrence was negatively related to wind speed and positively related to temperature and visibility. Using predictive performance metrics, we concluded that our model was highly predictive for the Virginia coast. Our findings were consistent with other studies—tree bat occurrence probability and presumed mortality risk to offshore wind-energy collisions is highest on low wind speed nights, high temperature and visibility nights, and during spring and fall. The high predictive model performance we observed provides a basis for which managers, using a similar monitoring and modeling regime, could develop an effective curtailment-based mitigation strategy.
dc.description Published version
dc.format application/pdf
dc.format application/pdf
dc.language en
dc.publisher MDPI
dc.rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.title Monitoring and Modeling Tree Bat (Genera: Lasiurus, Lasionycteris) Occurrence Using Acoustics on Structures off the Mid-Atlantic Coast—Implications for Offshore Wind Development
dc.title Animals
dc.type Article - Refereed
dc.type Text
dc.coverage Virginia
dc.coverage United States


Files in this item

Files Size Format View
animals-11-03146.pdf 2.326Mb application/pdf View/Open

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search DSpace


Advanced Search

Browse