Solar energy on former farmland: Co-existing with farmland birds

Description

In the province of Groningen, many solar parks are being realized on arable farmland. This threatens arable farmland ecosystems that are already in decline due to the intensification of agriculture. Farmland biodiversity could possibly benefit from an ecological design and management of solar parks. However, there is a lack of empirical data on the impact of solar parks on farmland biodiversity. As a case study,I studied the relationship between the design and management of solar parks and the abundance and diversity of farmland birds. The first results are based on one year of breeding bird monitoring (BMP) in three large solar parks (44 - 120 ha) and adjacent reference areas. Generally, species preferring more enclosed landscapes containing shrubs and hedgerows, such as Yellowhammer, were more abundant inside solar parks compared to conventional arable farmland, and thus seem to profit from solar parks. In contrast, species inhabiting more open landscapes, such as Skylark, were strongly avoiding solar parks, and thus seem to be threatened by the development of solar energy on arable farmland. We conclude that it is important to acknowledge species-specific effects when evaluating the impact of solar farms.

Periode	14-feb.-2024
Evenementstitel	Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2024
Evenementstype	Conference
Conferentienummer	16
Organisator	Netherlands Ecological Research Network (NERN)
Locatie	Lunteren, NetherlandsToon op kaart
Mate van erkenning	National