Ecosystem Change, Offshore Wind, Net Gain and Seabirds (ECOWINGS)

生态系统变化、海上风电、净收益和海鸟 (ECOWINGS)

• 批准号: NE/X008975/1
• 负责人: Sarah Wakelin
• 金额: $ 13.57万
• 依托单位: NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX008975%2F1
• 关键词: Ecosystem; Change; Offshore; Wind; Net

The UK government currently faces an acute risk to energy security from de-carbonisation associated with the global climate emergency, recent energy price rises and the threat of hydrocarbon supplies due to the conflict in eastern Europe. In the light of these events, targets for electricity generation from renewable sources have been increased. Offshore Wind (OW) will make a significant contribution to meeting these targets, but the timeline necessitates a 25% increase in the pace of OW deployment. The UK Government believes this acceleration can be achieved by making environmental assessments at a more strategic level, implementing nature-based design standards and reducing red tape. Seabird impacts are the top consenting issue inhibiting OW expansion in the UK sector of the North Sea (especially black-legged kittiwake, common guillemot, razorbill and Atlantic puffin). Policy proposals for overcoming these issues include making environmental assessments at a more strategic level, adopting strategic compensation measures, and delivering net gain to seabird populations and the wider marine ecosystem that is robust to climate change. Our project addresses three key Research Questions (RQs) designed to deliver urgently needed advice to ensure that these policies are implemented in ways which simultaneously deliver both OW expansion and net gain for seabirds and the ecosystem:RQ1. What are the cumulative impacts of OW on seabirds and on the wider ecosystem, and how do these scale with capacity? RQ2. What scale and extent of compensatory measures are required to provide strategic headroom of net gain to seabirds and the whole ecosystem while avoiding unforeseen consequences? RQ3. How can we incorporate sufficient headroom in strategic compensation to ensure it remains robust to future projections of climate change? Our project will focus on the key North Sea OW-seabird interaction area off southeast Scotland, but all the methods will be transferable to other UK regions. To answer the Research Questions we will use a range of inter-related models of ecosystem, seabird, forage fish and zooplankton dynamics together with new supporting data. The models will be deployed in innovative new ways to address the policy-driven challenges and make the results accessible to stakeholders through online tools. The new data collection will involve novel use of autonomous underwater and remote controlled uncrewed surface vehicles (AUV and USV) working in concert and integrated with the digital aerial seabird surveys commissioned in support of existing environmental programmes by the OW industry and as part of the Crown Estate OWEC programme. The combined AUV and USV surveys will gather multi-frequency hydroacoustic data on forage fish (sandeel and sprat/herring) patchiness in control areas not yet developed for OW, and existing OW farms. The coincident aerial surveys will gather high resolution data on seabirds. These matched predator-prey data will provide crucial process-based understanding on predator-prey interactions needed to estimate cumulative impacts on seabirds (RQ1) and develop effective strategic compensation (RQ2). Data to support RQ3 on modelling of climate-proofing for strategic compensation measures will be assembled from UK AMM7 biogeochemical model projections of ocean physics and chemistry under the IPCC RCP8.5 emissions scenario. Developers and stakeholders will be engaged early in the project to design a suite of potential strategic compensation scenarios which will be incrementally tested as the project progresses. Policy briefs setting out the findings and advice-to-date will be produced at annual intervals to ensure that the new evidence and tools developed in the project are fed rapidly into the decision-making process.

英国政府目前因与全球气候紧急情况，最近的能源价格上涨以及由于东欧冲突而造成的碳化碳化物的去碳化以及碳氢化合物供应的威胁而面临的急性风险。鉴于这些事件，从可再生能源发电的目标增加了。离岸风（OW）将为实现这些目标做出重大贡献，但是时间表必须增加25％的OW部署速度。英国政府认为，可以通过更具战略性的水平进行环境评估，实施基于自然的设计标准并减少繁文tape节来实现这种加速。海鸟撞击是抑制北海地区（尤其是黑腿的Kittiwake，Common Guillemot，Razorbill和Atlantic Puffin）的主要同意问题。克服这些问题的政策建议包括在更战略层面上进行环境评估，采取战略薪酬措施，并为海鸟人群和更广泛的海洋生态系统提供净收益，这对气候变化是有益的。我们的项目解决了旨在提供急需建议的三个关键研究问题（RQS），以确保以同时为海鸟和生态系统提供OW OW扩展和净收益的方式实施这些政策：RQ1。 OW对海鸟和更广泛的生态系统的累积影响是什么，这些规模如何？ RQ2。需要采取什么规模和范围的补偿措施来为海鸟和整个生态系统提供战略性的净收益净空，同时避免不可预见的后果？ RQ3。我们如何在战略补偿中纳入足够的净空，以确保它对未来的气候变化预测保持强大？我们的项目将重点关注苏格兰东南部的北海巨鸟交互区域，但所有方法都可以转移到其他英国地区。为了回答研究问题，我们将使用一系列相互关联的生态系统，海鸟，觅食鱼和浮游动力学的模型以及新的支持数据。这些模型将以创新的新方式部署，以应对政策驱动的挑战，并通过在线工具使利益相关者可以访问结果。新的数据收集将涉及新的使用自主水下和遥控的未螺旋地表面车辆（AUV和USV）协同工作，并与委托支持OW行业的现有环境计划的数字空中海鸟调查集成在一起，并作为Crown Estate OWEC计划的一部分。合并后的AUV和USV调查将收集有关尚未针对OW和现有OW FARMS开发的控制区域中的饲料鱼（Sandeel和Sprat/Sprat/Sprat/Sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/sprat/herring）的多频率数据。一致的空中调查将收集有关海鸟的高分辨率数据。这些匹配的捕食者捕集数据将对估计对海鸟累积影响（RQ1）（RQ1）的累积影响并发展有效的战略补偿（RQ2）所需的捕食者 - 捕集互动提供至关重要的理解。在IPCC RCP8.5排放场景下，将从英国AMM7海洋物理和化学的IMM7生物地球化学模型投影组装有关战略补偿措施建模的RQ3的数据。开发人员和利益相关者将在项目的早期参与，以设计一套潜在的战略薪酬方案，随着项目的进行，这些方案将进行逐步测试。政策摘要将以每年的时间间隔制定发现结果和咨询日期，以确保项目中开发的新证据和工具迅速馈送到决策过程中。