Wind turbines are vital for sustainable power, providing cheap electricity without producing any sort of pollution. But they can be deadly for birds, and new research shows just how deadly: Wind turbines kill so many birds that in ecosystems where they are placed, the turbines effectively take on the role of a top predator.

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We’ve long since known that wind turbines are a danger to birds. A typical wind farm can kill thousands of birds every year, including raptors like falcons and eagles. The deaths of these larger birds are the real problem because they can cause ripple effects throughout the entire ecosystem.

Take, for instance, a wind farm in the Western Ghats region of India, where a group of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science performed their study. In the area of the wind farm, raptors were around four times less common than in other areas. They kept dying to the turbines, which is not great for the raptors but good news for fan-throated lizards, the raptors’ prey.

In and around the wind farm, lizard populations exploded, completely unchecked by predation. So few of them were being eaten that they even lost almost all fear of danger. The researchers found they could approach the lizards without their running away. The lizards, in turn, reduced the population of their own prey species, causing a dramatic change in the ecosystem.

If there’s one thing humans have learned about ecology, it’s that even small changes can completely upset the balance of an ecosystem, leading to dramatic and often unpredictable changes. Removing one species can change everything else, and usually not in a good way. It’s not clear what the long-term consequences of the wind farm will be, but they will likely be bad.

The same effect is likely to occur here in the United States as well, and it’s tough to find a good solution. Some groups are experimenting with loudspeakers and sound cannons to scare birds away from turbines, and others are reevaluating how turbines are placed to minimize bird casualties. If these solutions aren’t enough, we might just have to live with altered ecosystems around wind farms. After all, not using wind turbines will have an even more negative impact on the environment.

Source: Nature

