TY - THES
TI - Assessing the ecological effects of the Lista wind power park on vegetation and cervids
AU - Lebesbye, EL
AB - Land-based wind power is considered one of the most applicable sources of renewable energy for the future. While cost effective, the knowledge of ecological consequences associated with construction and operation is limited. This thesis investigates how vegetation and cervid animals at Lista Wind Park were affected by its construction and operation.Vegetation data in revegetated and control plots were compared over a twelve-year period and tested for variation in species richness, species diversity and foliar coverage. Dispersal of alien species, as a result of infrastructure construction, was also investigated.Cervid habitat use was mapped one year before, during construction and several different years after the wind park was set into operation. This data was considered unreliable due to inconsistency in sampling circumstances and lack of calibration between observers, and not analysed further. Rather, inter-observer discrepancies in species identification were investigated.Vegetation in revegetated plots seems to converge towards control plots after twelve years. Differences in species richness, species diversity and foliar cover are no longer significant. However, models fail to account possible variations due to climate. The construction of the wind park resulted in dispersal of alien species.In general, experienced observers had trouble identifying species though photographs of feces, only being certain in ca. 50% of the cases. In cases where observers were certain, species ID was different compared to another observer in 19% of the cases.More studies are needed to determine land-based wind powers ecological consequences, especially on cervids.
DA - 2024/05//
PY - 2024
SP - 66
PB - Norwegian University of Life Sciences
UR - https://nmbu.brage.unit.no/nmbu-xmlui/handle/11250/3160182
LA - English
M3 - Master's Thesis
KW - Wind Energy
KW - Physical Environment
ER -