Assessing and Limiting the Adverse Effects of Offshore Wind Farm Development on Seabirds and Marine Mammals

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Background

The climate crisis requires a radical reduction in fossil energy reliance and a rapid shift to renewable energy sources. The European Union’s strategy to decarbonize energy relies largely on the development of offshore wind farms, which are expected to produce 20 times their current capacity by 2050. The expansion of offshore wind farms across Europe and beyond raises conservation issues due to their potential negative effects on marine fauna. Seabirds are at risk of colliding with blades and being blocked or displaced from functional areas for foraging or migration, which means increased energy expenditure to find alternative areas. Marine mammals are also sensitive to noise during both construction (pile driving etc.) and operation (boat and helicopter traffic) stages, leading either to behavioral or physiological issues and avoidance. Entanglement and collision may also affect marine mammals.

This Research Topic aims to collect and publish original and innovative research that improves our understanding of the potential impacts on marine mammals and seabirds or helps to mitigate the effects on these species.

This goal includes methodologies and technologies to improve risk assessment, including the risk of collision, displacement, entanglement (for floating turbines), behavioral changes, the physiological risk caused by noise, etc. Methodological advances in marine spatial planning are equally relevant, as identifying the lowest stress areas for marine megafauna strongly contributes to minimizing the ecological impact of offshore wind farms. Technical innovations and devices that contribute to better monitoring of seabirds and marine mammals along their life cycle also fit the Research Topic's goal. For example, accurate measures of flight height, improved species identification from digital surveys, and radar development are essential advances to improve risk assessment.

This article collection aims to solicit research on advances in methodology and knowledge that help identify, assess, and understand the severity of various potential impacts of offshore wind farms on marine mammals and seabird species.

We are looking for original research including:

1) Methodology that helps to improve marine spatial planning and the identification of least impact areas for seabirds and marine mammals along their life cycle.

2) Designs, analytical tools, methods, or systems that contribute to better risk assessment of collision, avoidance, noise, electromagnetic effects, indirect entanglement, and all potential risks.

2) Designs, analytical tools, methods, or systems that contribute to mitigating the environmental and ecological impacts of MRE devices.

3) Case studies of marine spatial planning, or risk assessments including construction or operating stages of wind farms.

5) Review articles that summarize the current status, the state of the art as well as limitations of the methodologies or technical tools used to assess and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind farms on seabirds and marine mammals.

Keywords: Offshore Wind Farm, Marine Mammals, Seabirds, Impact Assessment, Spatial Planning, Monitoring

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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