Solar farm management influences breeding bird responses in an arable-dominated landscape
Joshua P. Copping, Catherine E. Waite, Andrew Balmford, Richard B. Bradbury, Rob H. Field, I. Morris, Tom Finch
Abstract
Solar farms are increasing in Britain, but their biodiversity impact is under-studied. We explored bird populations on six solar farms in the East Anglian Fens, using an adapted Breeding Bird Survey across 23.2 km of transects, recording birds seen or heard within 100 m of transects (4 ha survey area). Solar farms were divided by management styles: simple habitat solar (10 transects) and mixed habitat solar (13 transects). We also surveyed 15.2 km of transects in arable farmland. Solar farms contained a greater bird abundance and species richness than arable farmland, but this varied with solar farm management (predicted abundance ±SE per 4 ha: solar with mixed habitat = 31.5 ± 6.4, solar with simple habitat = 17 ± 4.9, arable = 11.9 ± 2.6; predicted species richness ± SE per 4 ha: solar with mixed habitat = 13.5 ± 1.1, solar with simple habitat = 5.3 ± 0.6, arable = 5.5 ± 0.6). Our findings suggest that solar farms can benefit biodiversity in arable-dominated landscapes, especially when managed with biodiversity in mind.