Abstract
With 14 individual projects and a six-year project period, the project Accompanying Ecological Research on the Offshore Test Field Alpha Ventus for the Evaluation of the BSH Standard for Environmental Impact Assessments (StUKplus) was the most important German environmental research project to do with offshore wind farms to date. The object of the work was in particular the investigation of the impacts of construction and operation of offshore wind farms on fish, benthos, marine mammals and resting and migratory birds, but also issues to do with the effects of underwater noise etc. The results of the investigations were factored into an update of the Standard Investigation of the Impacts of Offshore Wind Turbines on the Marine Environment (StUK4), which is binding for the applicant or licence holder.