Breeding bird habitat use and turbine collisions of birds and bats located at a wind farm in Oklahoma mixed-grass prairie

Piorkowski, M. (2006). Breeding bird habitat use and turbine collisions of birds and bats located at a wind farm in Oklahoma mixed-grass prairie (Master's Thesis). Oklahoma State University.

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Abstract

This thesis is composed of a review of current literature and two manuscripts that are formatted for submission to scientific journals. Chapter II outlines major findings and issues of wind farms’ environmental assessments. It is composed of previous research and summarizes findings throughout the United States. Chapter III is formatted for submission to The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, a publication of The Wilson Ornithological Society. This chapter explores potential habitat loss and degradation for breeding grassland birds as it pertains to visual and auditory sensitivity (i.e., wind turbines). Chapter IV is written for submission to Biological Conservation. In this chapter, I discuss bat collisions with turbines at the Oklahoma Wind Energy Center in northwestern Oklahoma and calculate conservative estimates of summertime collision mortality along with spatial distribution fatality analysis.