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New research has shown that solar parks can play a positive role in promoting bird diversity in the agricultural landscape of Central Europe. According to scientists, they offer availability of food and nesting places.
A group of European researchers has carried out a study on the impact of solar parks on birds in a Central European agricultural landscape. They studied 32 solar farm plots and 32 adjacent control plots in Slovakia during a single breeding season.
“We selected ground-mounted solar photovoltaic parks with an area of ??at least 2 hectares,” the researchers explain. “All of the solar farms studied had fixed-tilt solar racks, one of which also had panels mounted on biaxial trackers, and were developed at least eight years earlier. “Seventeen solar parks were developed on cropland and 15 on grasslands.”
The scientists visited each plot twice, each time with binoculars for 20 minutes, and recorded every bird they could see or hear. They then classified them by species, population trends, nesting places, diet and feeding strata. Plots were also classified based on altitude, previous land use, terrain type, and vegetation management.
In total, the academic group observed 353 individuals of 41 species in the solar parks and 271 individuals of 40 species in the control plots. The black redstart, stonechat, white wagtail and mill sparrow were the species most associated with solar parks.
According to the research group, the richness and diversity of bird species and the richness and abundance of eating invertebrate species were higher in the solar farms than in the control plots. Among the reasons given by the research group is the availability of food for insectivorous birds, since the photovoltaic panels attract several species of aquatic insects that search for water.
“As the availability and accessibility of food is low in winter, it can be assumed that solar farms can have a positive impact on farm birds outside the breeding season, since they can serve as stopping, foraging and resting places. during migration and wintering, since the ground under the solar panels can remain free of snow in winter,” the academics explain.
Another possible reason suggested was the greater structural diversity of solar parks.
“We observed that the support structures of the solar panels were used as nesting sites by the black redstart and the white wagtail, the mill sparrow nested in the support structures of the panels made of tubes, while the stonechat nested in the uncultivated or extensive vegetation under the solar panels or next to the fence,” the researchers added.
They also stressed that the solar parks considered for the study were designed and managed solely for the production of renewable electricity. “Therefore, it can be assumed that the benefits for biodiversity would be even greater if they were managed synergistically with greater attention to fauna,” they concluded.
They presented their analysis in the study “ Solar parks can enhance bird diversity in the agricultural landscape,” published in the Journal of Environmental Management . Scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Gemer-Malohont Museum, the Comenius University of Bratislava, the Catholic University of Ružomberok, the Slovak Ornithological Society/BirdLife Slovakia and the Belgian University of Antwerp collaborated in the research. |
