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Energy and Wildlife Publications

Looking for publications related to energy and wildlife? Browse the list below or use the search box to narrow the results.

Filter Total Items: 194

Utilizing high-resolution genetic markers to track population-level exposure of migratory birds to renewable energy development

With new motivation to increase the proportion of energy demands met by zero-carbon sources, there is a greater focus on efforts to assess and mitigate the impacts of renewable energy development on sensitive ecosystems and wildlife, of which birds are of particular interest. One challenge for researchers, due in part to a lack of appropriate tools, has been estimating the effects from such develo

Authors
Ryan J. Harrigan, Jasmine Rajbhandary, Christen Bossu, Peter M. Sanzenbacher, Thomas Dietsch, Cristian Gruppi, Todd E. Katzner, Thomas J. Smith III, Kristen Ruegg

Species management research program [postcard]

Executive SummaryOur nation’s fish and wildlife species face increasingly complex threats and challenges. Ensuring a healthy future for these species benefits all Americans, contributing to the abundance of our food supply, the well-being of diverse cultures and communities, and the future of biodiverse ecosystems. The U.S. Geological Survey Species Management Research Program (SMRP) plays a criti
Authors
Melanie J. Steinkamp, Mona Khalil, Sally House, Mark Wimer, David H. Hu, Michael J. Adams

Geothermal energy production adversely affects a sensitive indicator species within sagebrush ecosystems in western North America

Growing demand for renewable energy has resulted in expansion of energy infrastructure across sagebrush ecosystems of western North America. Geothermal power is an increasingly popular renewable energy source, especially within remote areas, but little is known about the impacts it may have on local wildlife populations. Investigations are warranted given similarities to more conventional surface
Authors
Peter S. Coates, Brian G. Prochazka, Shawn T. O'Neil, Sarah Catherine Webster, Shawn Espinosa, Mark A. Ricca, Steven R. Mathews, Michael L. Casazza, David J. Delehanty

Limited rigor in studies of raptor mortality and mitigation at wind power facilities

Wind power is an expanding source of renewable energy. However, there are ecological challenges related to wind energy generation, including collisions of wildlife with turbines. Lack of rigor, and variation in study design, together limit efforts to understand the broad-scale effects of wind power infrastructure on wildlife populations. It is not clear, however, whether these types of limitations
Authors
Tara Conkling, Christopher J. W. McClure, Sandra Cuadros, S. R. Loss, Todd E. Katzner

Selecting auditory alerting stimuli for eagles on the basis of auditory evoked potentials

Development of wind energy facilities results in interactions between wildlife and wind turbines. Raptors, including bald and golden eagles, are among the species known to incur mortality from these interactions. Several alerting technologies have been proposed to mitigate this mortality by increasing eagle avoidance of wind energy facilities. However, there has been little attempt to match signal
Authors
Benjamin Goller, Patrice Baumhardt, Ernesto Dominguez-Villegas, Todd E. Katzner, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Jeffrey R. Lucas

Potential effects of energy development on environmental resources of the Williston Basin in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota

About this volumeThe Williston Basin, which includes parts of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota in the United States, has been a leading domestic oil and gas producing area. To better understand the potential effects of energy development on environmental resources in the Williston Basin, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, and in support of the nee

Synthesis of habitat availability and carrying capacity research to support water management decisions and enhance conditions for Pacific salmon in the Willamette River, Oregon

Flow management is complex in the Willamette River Basin where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates a system of 13 dams and reservoirs (hereinafter Willamette Project), which are spread throughout three large tributaries including the Middle Fork Willamette, McKenzie, and Santiam Rivers. The primary purpose of the Willamette Project is flood-risk management, which provides critical p
Authors
Tobias J. Kock, Russell W. Perry, Gabriel S. Hansen, James White, Laurel E. Stratton Garvin, J. Rose Wallick

Demographic and potential biological removal models identify raptor species sensitive to current and future wind energy

A central challenge in applied ecology is understanding the effect of anthropogenic fatalities on wildlife populations and predicting which populations may be particularly vulnerable and in greatest need of management attention. We used 3 approaches to investigate potential effects of fatalities from collisions with wind turbines on 14 raptor species for both current (106 GW) and anticipated futur
Authors
James E. Diffendorfer, Jessica C. Stanton, Julie A. Beston, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Scott R. Loss, Todd E. Katzner, Douglas H. Johnson, Richard A. Erickson, Matthew D. Merrill, Margo D. Corum

Connectivity of Mojave Desert tortoise populations—Management implications for maintaining a viable recovery network

Executive SummaryThe historic distribution of Mojave desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) was relatively continuous across the range, and the importance of tortoise habitat outside of designated tortoise conservation areas (TCAs) to recovery has long been recognized for its contributions to supporting gene flow between TCAs and to minimizing impacts and edge effects within TCAs. However, connecti
Authors
Roy C. Averill-Murray, Todd C. Esque, Linda J. Allison, Scott Bassett, Sarah K. Carter, Kirsten E. Dutcher, Steven J. Hromada, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Kenneth E. Nussear

Relative energy production determines effect of repowering on wildlife mortality at wind energy facilities

Reduction in wildlife mortality is often cited as a potential advantage to repowering wind facilities, that is, replacing smaller, lower capacity, closely spaced turbines, with larger, higher capacity ones, more widely spaced. Wildlife mortality rates, however, are affected by more than just size and spacing of turbines, varying with turbine operation, seasonal and daily weather and habitat, all o
Authors
Manuela Huso, Tara Conkling, Daniel Dalthorp, Melanie J Davis, Heath Smith, Amy Fesnock-Parker, Todd E. Katzner

Eagle fatalities are reduced by automated curtailment of wind turbines

Collision‐caused fatalities of animals at wind power facilities create a ‘green versus green’ conflict between wildlife conservation and renewable energy. These fatalities can be mitigated via informed curtailment whereby turbines are slowed or stopped when wildlife are considered at increased risk of collision. Automated monitoring systems could improve efficacy of informed curtailment, yet such
Authors
Christopher J W McClure, Brian W Roleck, Leah Dunn, Jennifer D McCabe, Luke Martinson, Todd E. Katzner

Water storage decisions will determine the distribution and persistence of imperiled river fishes

Managing the world’s freshwater supply to meet societal and environmental needs in a changing climate is one of the biggest challenges for the 21st century. Dams provide water security, however, the allocation of dwindling water supply among reservoirs could exacerbate or ameliorate the effects of climate change on aquatic communities. Here, we show that the relative sensitivity of river thermal r
Authors
Kimberly L. Dibble, Charles Yackulic, Theodore Kennedy, Kevin R. Bestgen, John C. Schmidt