Date of Award
1-5-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Biology, MS
First Advisor
Thomas Risch
Committee Members
Tanja McKay; Virginie Rolland
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2014 J52
Abstract
Wind power has become a substantial investment in the United States energy portfolio. It is approximated that by the year 2030, 30% of the world's energy will be produced by wind. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 bats are killed in the United States every year by wind turbines. Using Anabat SD2, mist netting, fatalities searches, and two automatic-acoustic identifiers, I investigated six single-single unit turbines and their effects on bats in two ecoregions of Arkansas during the summers of 2012 and 2013. Netting effort totaled 30 nights with 94 bats captured during that time. I performed a combined 142 fatality searches resulting in finding 20 bat carcasses at one Delta turbine alone. A total of 17,017 hours of Anabat record time was logged. Bat Call Identification East read 159,788 files identifying 17,978 bat sequences to species level. Visual comparison to known-call libraries resulted in 90% efficacy for Bat Call Identification East (BCID). Echoclass read 157,788 files identifying 5,928 bat sequences to species level. Echoclass had a 74% efficacy from visual comparison. Suggestions for possible curtailment of fatalities due to wind turbines would be to conduct surveys before and after installment of turbine, site placement, and smaller rotor-swept areas.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Phillip Nathaniel, "Single-Unit Turbines and Bat Mortality in Arkansas" (2015). Student Theses and Dissertations. 754.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/754
