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Title: Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats

Abstract

Documented fatalities of bats at wind turbines have raised serious concerns about the future impacts of increased wind power development on populations of migratory bat species. Yet there is little data on bat population sizes and trends to provide context for understanding the consequences of mortality due to wind power development. Using a large dataset of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation for eastern red bats, we demonstrated that: 1) this species forms a single, panmictic population across their range with no evidence for the historical use of divergent migratory pathways by any portion of the population; 2) the effective size of this population is in the hundreds of thousands to millions; and 3) for large populations, genetic diversity measures and at least one coalescent method are insensitive to even very high rates of population decline over long time scales and until population size has become very small. Our data provide important context for understanding the population-level impacts of wind power development on affected bat species.

Authors:
 [1];  [2]
  1. Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)
  2. Grand Valley State Univ. Allendale, MI (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
OSTI Identifier:
1312842
Report Number(s):
DOE-WMU-0533
DOE Contract Number:  
EE0000533
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Related Information: Vonhof, M. J., and A. L. Russell. 2015. Genetic approaches to the conservation of migratory bats: a study of the eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis). PeerJ 3:e983; DOI 10.7717/peerj.983
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
17 WIND ENERGY; 60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Vonhof, Maarten J., and Russell, Amy L. Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.2172/1312842.
Vonhof, Maarten J., & Russell, Amy L. Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1312842
Vonhof, Maarten J., and Russell, Amy L. 2013. "Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1312842. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1312842.
@article{osti_1312842,
title = {Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats},
author = {Vonhof, Maarten J. and Russell, Amy L.},
abstractNote = {Documented fatalities of bats at wind turbines have raised serious concerns about the future impacts of increased wind power development on populations of migratory bat species. Yet there is little data on bat population sizes and trends to provide context for understanding the consequences of mortality due to wind power development. Using a large dataset of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation for eastern red bats, we demonstrated that: 1) this species forms a single, panmictic population across their range with no evidence for the historical use of divergent migratory pathways by any portion of the population; 2) the effective size of this population is in the hundreds of thousands to millions; and 3) for large populations, genetic diversity measures and at least one coalescent method are insensitive to even very high rates of population decline over long time scales and until population size has become very small. Our data provide important context for understanding the population-level impacts of wind power development on affected bat species.},
doi = {10.2172/1312842},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1312842}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Mon Sep 30 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}