Investigating the potential effects of marine renewable energy developments on seabirds
type: CreativeWork
description: Marine renewable energy developments (MREDs) are becoming an increasing feature of the marine environment. MREDs are just one of several human activities in the marine environment that have the potential to impact marine species. Scotland has considerable potential for generating energy from the marine environment in the form of extensive wind, wave and tidal-stream resources. Scotland also hosts numerous internationally important breeding populations of seabirds and Scottish territorial waters represent a key overwintering area for many species. Several MRED sites in Scotland are located in proximity to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and draft marine SPAs designated specifically to safeguard important populations of seabirds. EU legislation requires that MREDs do not damage the integrity of protected seabird populations within SPAs. However, the potential effects of MREDs on seabirds are not yet fully understood. In this thesis, I aim to address gaps in knowledge regarding how MREDs may affect seabird populations. Firstly, I generate vulnerability and confidence indices to predict the effects of offshore wind, wave and tidalstream renewable energy on Scottish seabird populations, and identify areas lacking in data. I found that effects of MREDs are species-specific and several species require additional research and monitoring to confidently predict how MREDs may affect their populations. One Scottish species identified as lacking in data is the great skua Stercorarius skua. Therefore, this thesis investigates the overlap of breeding great skua movements with MREDs. I found that overall overlap with MREDs was low, and that breeding birds and birds that had failed in their breeding attempt differed in their movements at sea. This indicates that subsections of great skua populations could be differently affected by MREDs. To further explore the potential for differential effects of MREDs within seabird populations, I investigate individual variation in great skua fo…
abstract: Marine renewable energy developments (MREDs) are becoming an increasing feature of the marine environment. MREDs are just one of several human activities in the marine environment that have the potential to impact marine species. Scotland has considerable potential for generating energy from the marine environment in the form of extensive wind, wave and tidal-stream resources. Scotland also hosts numerous internationally important breeding populations of seabirds and Scottish territorial waters represent a key overwintering area for many species. Several MRED sites in Scotland are located in proximity to Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and draft marine SPAs designated specifically to safeguard important populations of seabirds. EU legislation requires that MREDs do not damage the integrity of protected seabird populations within SPAs. However, the potential effects of MREDs on seabirds are not yet fully understood. In this thesis, I aim to address gaps in knowledge regarding how MREDs may affect seabird populations. Firstly, I generate vulnerability and confidence indices to predict the effects of offshore wind, wave and tidalstream renewable energy on Scottish seabird populations, and identify areas lacking in data. I found that effects of MREDs are species-specific and several species require additional research and monitoring to confidently predict how MREDs may affect their populations. One Scottish species identified as lacking in data is the great skua Stercorarius skua. Therefore, this thesis investigates the overlap of breeding great skua movements with MREDs. I found that overall overlap with MREDs was low, and that breeding birds and birds that had failed in their breeding attempt differed in their movements at sea. This indicates that subsections of great skua populations could be differently affected by MREDs. To further explore the potential for differential effects of MREDs within seabird populations, I investigate individual variation in great skua fo…
author: Wade, Helen Mary
language: eng
date published: 2015-9-15
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:12:04Z
provider: University of the Highlands and Islands
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Edinburgh