Benthic Disturbance from Offshore Wind Foundations, Anchors, and Cables

This Educational Research Brief will summarizes the potential disturbance and impact to benthic ecosystems for fixed-bottom installations in shallow waters and floating offshore wind farms in deep waters. Stresses from pile driving, scour, cable installation, and anchoring are reviewed for impacts during the construction and operation periods of the wind farm using data and analysis from Europe and the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

View a Spanish translation of all SEER Educational Research Briefs here.

The Brief was reviewed by external subject matter experts (Dr. Monique LaFrance Bartley, U.S. National Park Service; Dr. Jan Vanaverbeke, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) and the SEER Science and Technical (S&T) Advisory Committee. These subject matter experts also participated in a panel discussion during the SEER Webinar on Effects of Offshore Wind Farm Structures on Fish Ecology & Benthic Disturbance.

The table below contains the literature relevant to this summary document.

Title	Author	Date Sort ascending	Content Type	Technology	Stressor	Receptor
Role of food subsidies and habitat structure in influencing benthic communities of shell mounds at sites of existing and former offshore oil platforms	Bomkamp, R., Page, H., Dugan, J.	June 2004	Journal Article			Invertebrates, Human Dimensions, Marine Spatial Planning