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Wind energy, considered a clean source of energy, does have a carbon footprint and also disrupts bird life. A new study in the Western Ghats revealed that wind farms located in areas rich in biodiversity could have deeper ecological consequences than already known impacts.
The study found that wind farms reduce the number and activity of predatory birds, which in turn leads to an increase in vertebrate density as the lizard on the ground. And as lizards are less afraid of birds, they become less and less stressful. This means that wind turbines act as new predators at the top of the local ecosystem's food chain, according to the study published in Monday's journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The predatory bird species affected are Buteo, Butastur and Elanus and the density of Sarada superba is a fan-throat lizard endemic to the region.
The study was conducted on the Chalkewadi Plateau in Satara District, in the northwestern Ghats, site of one of the oldest wind turbines in the region. Large parts of the plateau and the adjacent valley are in the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve and the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. These protected areas do not have wind turbines and were chosen for comparison purposes. Researchers found nearly four times more predatory birds in areas devoid of wind turbines than in wind farms. They found more lizards around the wind farms. The researchers said that this can be attributed to the number of predatory bird attacks near the wind farms
. To record changes in lizard physiology, researchers measured hormone stress reactivity. They captured lizards, collected blood samples and quantified the level of stress hormone, corticosterone. Blood samples were collected from lizards collected at both sites – areas with wind farms and areas without a wind farm. The lizards collected in the wind farm area had lower levels of stress hormone and allowed humans to come closer before they escaped, indicating that they were undergoing less predation.
"Our key finding is that wind turbines can act as predators that reduce the density and activity of birds, and their prey is now free of the usual level of predation. This release causes a series of changes in lizards, "explained Maria Thaker of the Center for Ecological Sciences of the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, who was leading the research while addressing India Science Wire. .
The conclusions of our document on ecology were interesting. because it has shown that wind farms are like superior predators and that their impact can not only result in a decrease of the activity of the birds (previously known), but also by indirectly increasing the density of the lizards and by modifying the morphology, the behavior and physiology of birds. these lizards. The addition or elimination of a higher predator has large-scale consequences on ecosystems and our study shows that anthropogenic structures can do so.
(L to R): Maria Thaker, Amod Zambre and Harshal Bhosale – Abi Vanak [19659009]
Maria Thaker, Amod Zambre and Harshal Bhosale are part of the research team.
Twitter handle: @dineshcsharma
(India Science Wire)
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