OAccording to a study, ffshore wind farms in the North Sea are a threat to red-throated divers. The approximately 60 centimeter large waterfowl spend the winter in the German North Sea, among other places. After the wind turbines were erected near the coast, not only did the number of red-throated divers decrease in the waters between Sylt, Heligoland and Borkum, the birds also left the area around the 14 wind farms that had been erected in the meantime.
Between 2010 and 2017, researchers from the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel examined the population and distribution of red-throated divers in the German North Sea and adjacent Danish areas. In the study published in the specialist magazine “Scientific Reports”, the scientists around Stefan Garthe now describe that red-throated divers avoid the wind farms. The bird species disappeared almost completely around two wind farm clusters.
Wind farms could provide more food
Waterfowl are already endangered in the EU. In the new habitat, the animals face intense competition for the limited food supply. According to the researchers, this endangers their reproductive success. At the same time, the wind farms will be built on hard substrate, which creates “artificial reefs” on sandy seabeds that could provide a richer supply of fish. More research needs to be done to clarify whether red-throated divers actually take advantage of this offering and put themselves in the danger zone to do so.
Red-throated divers belong to the genus of loons.
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Bild: David Karnå / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0
In the report on the long-term effects of wind farm construction on the marine environment, the researchers note that the number of red-throated divers within a ten-kilometer radius has been cut in half after the construction of such wind farms. At a distance of one kilometer from the wind farms, the number of red-throated divers even fell by 94 percent. According to population estimates, the total population before the wind farms were built was 35,000. After that, only 25,000 individuals could be counted.