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      Do terrestrial animals avoid areas close to turbines in functioning wind farms in agricultural landscapes?

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          Abstract

          Most studies on the effects of wind energy on animals have focused on avian and bat activity, habitat use, and mortality, whereas very few have been published on terrestrial, non-volant wildlife. In this paper, we studied the utilization of functioning wind farm areas by four terrestrial animals common to agricultural landscapes: European roe deer, European hare, red fox, and the common pheasant. Firstly, we expected that the studied animals do not avoid areas close to turbines and utilize the whole area of functioning wind farms with a frequency similar to the control areas. Secondly, we expected that there is no relation between the turbine proximity and the number of tracks of these animals. The study was conducted over two winter seasons using the snow-tracking method along 100 m linear transects. In total, 583 transects were recorded. Wind farm operations may affect terrestrial animals both in wind farm interiors and in a 700-m buffer zone around the edge of turbines. The reactions of animals were species specific. Herbivorous mammals (roe deer and European hare) avoided wind farm interiors and proximity to turbines. The common pheasant showed a positive reaction to wind turbine proximity. The red fox had the most neutral response to wind turbines. Although this species visited wind farm interiors less often than the control area, there was no relation between fox track density and turbine proximity. Greater weight should be given to the effects of wind farms on non-flying wildlife than at present. Investors and regulatory authorities should always consider the likely impacts of wind farms during environmental impact assessments and try to reduce these negative effects.

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          The Ecology of Fear: Optimal Foraging, Game Theory, and Trophic Interactions

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            The costs of chronic noise exposure for terrestrial organisms.

            Growth in transportation networks, resource extraction, motorized recreation and urban development is responsible for chronic noise exposure in most terrestrial areas, including remote wilderness sites. Increased noise levels reduce the distance and area over which acoustic signals can be perceived by animals. Here, we review a broad range of findings that indicate the potential severity of this threat to diverse taxa, and recent studies that document substantial changes in foraging and anti-predator behavior, reproductive success, density and community structure in response to noise. Effective management of protected areas must include noise assessment, and research is needed to further quantify the ecological consequences of chronic noise exposure in terrestrial environments.
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              Wolves, elk, and bison: reestablishing the "landscape of fear" in Yellowstone National Park, U.S.A.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                lopucki@kul.pl
                +48 22 59 365 82 , daniel_klich@sggw.pl
                sylwia.gielarek@o2.pl
                Journal
                Environ Monit Assess
                Environ Monit Assess
                Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
                Springer International Publishing (Cham )
                0167-6369
                1573-2959
                19 June 2017
                19 June 2017
                2017
                : 189
                : 7
                : 343
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0664 8391, GRID grid.37179.3b, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, , The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, ; Konstantynów 1J, 20-708 Lublin, Poland
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1955 7966, GRID grid.13276.31, Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, , Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, ; Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland
                [3 ]The Regional Directorates for Environmental Protection in Lublin, Bazylianówka 46, 20-144 Lublin, Poland
                Article
                6018
                10.1007/s10661-017-6018-z
                5487708
                28631229
                70f56d87-901b-4a24-84cb-17c188c8e4d6
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

                History
                : 29 September 2016
                : 23 May 2017
                Categories
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                Custom metadata
                © Springer International Publishing AG 2017

                General environmental science
                wind energy,environmental impact assessment,european roe deer,european hare,red fox,common pheasant

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