Wind farm construction impacts reindeer migration and movement corridors Show others and affiliations
2015 (English) In: Landscape Ecology, ISSN 0921-2973, E-ISSN 1572-9761, Vol. 30, no 8, p. 1527-1540Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Over the last decade, we have seen a massive increase in the construction of wind farms in northern Fennoscandia. Wind farms comprising hundreds of wind turbines are being built, with little knowledge of the possible cumulative adverse effects on the habitat use and migration of semi-domesticated free-ranging reindeer. We assessed how reindeer responded to wind farm construction in an already fragmented landscape, with specific reference to the effects on use of movement corridors and reindeer habitat selection. We used GPS-data from reindeer during calving and post-calving in the MalAyen reindeer herding community in Sweden. We analysed data from the pre-development years compared to the construction years of two relatively small wind farms. During construction of the wind farms, use of original migration routes and movement corridors within 2 km of development declined by 76 %. This decline in use corresponded to an increase in activity of the reindeer measured by increased step lengths within 0-5 km. The step length was highest nearest the development and declining with distance, as animals moved towards migration corridors and turned around or were observed in holding patterns while not crossing. During construction, reindeer avoided the wind farms at both regional and landscape scale of selection. The combined construction activities associated with even a few wind turbines combined with power lines and roads in or close to central movement corridors caused a reduction in the use of such corridors and grazing habitat and increased the fragmentation of the reindeer calving ranges.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages 2015. Vol. 30, no 8, p. 1527-1540
Keywords [en]
Rangifer, Disturbance, Anthropogenic development, Step length, GPS collars, Cumulative effects
National Category
Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use Ecology
Research subject Research Profiles 2009-2020, Complex Systems – Microdata Analysis
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:du-19526 DOI: 10.1007/s10980-015-0210-8 ISI: 000360673200013 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84940786501 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-19526 DiVA, id: diva2:856582
2015-09-242015-09-242025-10-09 Bibliographically approved