[{"id":941,"title":"Environmental Impact Assessment and wildlife: from a descriptive to an experimental approach","sha":"9276c6cd719fb5d362b2111976ac6786","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) aim to identify, quantify and mitigate or compensate for the impacts and cumulative effects of projects, such as transport infrastructures and power plants, on ecosystems. Therefore, consultants should provide evidence on wildlife for decision-making (i.e. to approve, modify or reject the project). Moreover, consultants should monitor wildlife populations to adapt the mitigation measures over time because of long response times (e.g. extinction debt) and because the impacts may change (i.e. adaptive management). However, consultants often only inventory the local biodiversity but do not predict the impacts of projects on wildlife. Any project is a disturbance, and any disturbance opens up an experimental scenario. Therefore, consultants should apply experimental approaches for assessing the impacts of projects on wildlife populations at the landscape scale. For instance, [Noguera et al. (2010)](https://www.ardeola.org/en/volumes/571/articles/41-53/) created an index to estimate the raptor collision risk in wind farms, and [Torres at al. (2011)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320711002242) applied a Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) study design to assess the impact of a motorway on a *Otis tarda* population. In conclusion, project developers should provide funding and time for consultants to work as researchers: environmental impact reports should be treated as research articles. If not, the competent authority should apply the precautionary principle.","created_at":"2022-05-11T21:00:10.784Z","updated_at":"2022-07-14T21:59:36.956Z","zenodo_id":6644355,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6644355","subject":null,"tags":["conservation biology","environmental impact assessment","mitigation measures","projects","wildlife consulting"],"vote_count":3,"view_count":1,"score":3.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":1138,"title":"Solar photovoltaic power stations in dry cereal farmland: how to convert habitat loss into landscape heterogeneity","sha":"99aa7548a13ac96f35393d628a3b9c74","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Agricultural intensification has caused the decline of farmland bird populations across Europe ([Donald et al. 2001]( https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2000.1325); [Rigal et al. 2023](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216573120)). High-intensity farming simplifies agricultural mosaics by removing non-cultivated landscape elements such as fallow land and field margins. However, birds depend on semi-natural areas for feeding and nesting in dry cereal farmland. In fact, the decline of farmland bird populations in the Iberian peninsula is linked to the loss of fallow land ([Traba \u0026 Morales 2019](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45854-0)). \r\n\r\nThe main impact of solar photovoltaic power stations (SPPSs) on farmland birds is habitat loss ([Serrano et al. 2020]( https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abf6509)): around 2 ha of land per MWp of power. However, if managed as large pesticide-free fallow patches, SPPSs may function as sources of seeds and invertebrates that spread along field margins throughout farmland (spillover effects; [Blitzer et al. 2012]( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880911003306)): i.e. large patches (\u003e 10 ha of fallow land) interact with linear corridors (field margins of at least 1,5 m in width) to move trophic resources for farmland birds throughout the agricultural landscape for a long time (the useful life of SPPSs is 30 years). Managing SPPSs as large pesticide-free fallow patches converts non-habitat into landscape heterogeneity in intensive farmland. Therefore, SPPSs managed as fallow land may mitigate the negative effects of agricultural intensification on farmland birds.\r\n","created_at":"2023-07-03T22:20:30.378Z","updated_at":"2023-08-05T12:41:03.613Z","zenodo_id":8196218,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8196218","subject":null,"tags":["agricultural intensification","dry cereal farmland","fallow land","farmland birds","iberian peninsula","landscape heterogeneity","solar photovoltaic power stations","spillover effects"],"vote_count":1,"view_count":1,"score":1.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":"GraphicalAbstract.jpg","attachment_content_type":"image/jpeg","attachment_file_size":868575,"attachment_updated_at":"2023-07-03T22:20:30.336Z"}]