Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as golden eagles, that live nearby. Now there is evidence that birds from up to hundreds of miles away make up a significant portion of the raptors that are killed at these wind energy fields.
普渡大学的研究人员和美国地质调查局使用来自金鹰尸体的羽毛的组织和稳定的同位素的DNA，发现在北加州的Altamont Pass风资源区杀死的金鹰可能来自数百英里。金鹰是一种保护的物种，因此了解人口级别的差异以及个人如何与涡轮机相互作用是实现美国鱼类和野生动植物服务的关键目标，即对其人群无净损失。
The APWRA is one of the oldest wind farms in the country and one of the largest in the world originally with around 5,000 turbines. Worldwide, such facilities have been responsible for the deaths of 140,000 to 328,000 birds and 500,000 to 1.6 million bats, raising questions about their effects on population sustainability.
“Eagles tend to use that habitat around the turbines. It’s windy there, so they can save energy and soar, and their preferred prey, California ground squirrels, is abundant there,” said J. Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue professor of genetics in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. “As they soar, these eagles are often looking straight down, and they fail to see the rapidly moving turbine blades. They get hit by the blades, and carcasses are found on the ground under the turbines.”
Collaborator David Nelson, a stable isotope ecologist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, tested the birds’ feathers for stable hydrogen isotopes, which can be used to determine where the birds likely grew their feathers. The research team determined that about 75 percent of the 62 birds were from the local population. The remaining 25 percent likely migrated into the area before they were killed.
Isotopes are atoms of an element that have different molecular weights. As precipitation moves inland, water with the heavier form of hydrogen falls out first, which creates predictable patterns of the stable isotopes ratios of precipitation across continents.
尼尔森说：“当鸟类在特定地方喝水或吃动物时，该区域的氢同位素比率被记录在其组织中。”“您可以在羽毛中使用这些氢比来确定鸟类生长羽毛的大约位置。”
一项遗传分析表明，来自美国西部的金鹰具有类似于APWRA中被杀死的基因库，这反映了这些鸟类广泛分散的能力。
USGS的野生动植物生物学家托德·卡兹纳（Todd Katzner）表示：“我们建立的人口模型证实，在没有实质性移民的情况下，在阿尔塔蒙特杀死的老鹰队的年龄结构很难复制。”卡兹纳说，这些发现表明，对诸如Altamont Pass这样的替代能源设施的环境评估应考虑到受风力涡轮机影响的动物种群可能不仅是本地。
卡兹纳说：“如果您仅在环境评估中考虑当地鸟类，那么您就不会真正评估设施对整个人群的影响。”
DeWoody said that wind energy generators can receive permits that allow a certain number of unintended bird deaths. But if that number is too large, the companies could be fined. And knowing that a large percentage of the birds killed are from neighboring states could muddy the management waters.
Dewoody说：“这个地点的金鹰死亡表现出了后果，这些后果遍及整个北美的物种范围。”
The golden eagle population is a concern for several state and federal agencies, DeWoody added. He said future research could include looking at more bird species affected by turbines.
The study was published inConservation Biology.
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