co-ordination of ecological research accompanying the alpha

Kristin Blasche, BSH 1

January 24, 2012

Kristin Blasche Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH)

Co-ordination of ecological researchaccompanying the alpha ventus project


Introduction – German North Sea EEZ

BSH is licensing agency foroffshore installations in the German EEZ

Total North Sea:25 permits granted / 1787 turbines

Installed turbines:alpha ventus: 12 turbinesBard I: 19 turbines (so far)Borkum West II: 17 foundations (so far)

Borkum Riffgrund II genehmigt 30.12.2011


About alpha ventus• First offshore wind farm in the German EEZ • 45 km to island of Borkum, 70 km to coastline• Water depth 30-35 m• Provides energy for 50.000 households

alpha ventus and RAVE

About RAVE – Research at alpha ventus• A research initiative of the German Ministry for the Environment• Accompanying research at the alpha ventus test wind farm• Up to 50 million Euro funding in 5 years• 2010: 17 Projects with about 36 million Euro funded• More than 40 research partners


Standard Investigation of the Impacts of Offshore Wind Turbineson the Marine Environment (StUK)

• 3rd edition of February 2007• Requirements for the Investigations before, during construction

and operation

For: • fish / benthos (bottom-living organisms)• Marine mammals (incl. underwater noise)• Resting and migratory birds

Standard Monitoring Program - StUK


• Part of RAVE• Synergetic approach: StUK3-Monitoring and Research• May 2008 – April 2012 (extension planned till 2014)

Aim• gain a better knowledge about wind farm effects in time and space• evaluate the StUK3-monitoring

» co-ordination BSH» R & D contracts with

Ecological Research at alpha ventus


Timeline (BACI-Design)

2008 20102009 2011 2012

Baseline study

Installation transformerstation Sept. 2008

Construction phase

Installation 12 turbines

Commissioning of theturbines finished

Year 1 and 2 of operation phase

Year 3 of operation phase

First observations

First results for short-term effects


• What impact will noise during the construction and operational phases have on marine mammals and fish? What amount of underwater noise does the alpha ventus wind farm produce?

• How do migratory birds react on the turbines (collisions, avoidance)? Is thereany attraction caused by light?

• Do marine mammals and seabirds still use the wind farm area as a habitatduring operation (avoidance, habitat loss)?

• How does the habitat for benthic organisms and fish change in the vicinity of the foundations?

R & D topics


Noise Currents

Food Structure

Relevant changes for the environment


First results – local and global scour

Multibeam (AV7, April 2010)

Multibeam (AV4, April 2010)


First results - Megafauna

Cancer pagurus, WEA12Necora puber, FINO 1

The habitat in the close vicinity to the foundations changed from fine sandto a mussel covered sea bottom with scours to 6m depth.

First species who prefer rocky sediments were observed.

Taurulus bubalis, FINO 1


1) Beam Trawl hauls in reference and project area• Spring 2008 (pre)• Spring & autumn 2009 (construction)• Spring & autumn 2010 (year 1)• Spring & autumn 2012 (year 3)

Small project area• No trawling over cables• No trawling next to other measurement devices• Distance to the turbines (Security reasons)

2) Set Net Monitoring during operation phase• 4 turbines / 2 of each foundation type• Spring 2010 (year 1)• Spring 2011 (year 2 - due to bad weather)• Spring & Autumn 2012 (year 3)

StUK3-Monitoring: Fish – Monitoring Design


Transform: Square rootResemblance: S17 Bray Curtis similarity

legendSpring_ProjectSpring_ReferenceAutumn_ProjectAutumn_Reference

Similarity7282

2D Stress: 0,09

Comparison reference and project area - year 1 operation phase (2010)

• MDS: Abundances of characteristic species• Significant difference between fish communities concerning

• Saisonality (spring & autumn)• Area (Reference & project)

• BUT: high level of similarity (72%)• So far no detectable wind farm effect

StUK3-Monitoring: Fish – Results I


• Same fish community including characteristic species• During construction phase lower number of species (plaice) with higher

abundances• During first year of construction higher number of species with lower

abundances

Comparison baseline, construction and first year of operation• spring data

StUK3-Monitoring: Fish – Results II

base construction operation

Abu

ndan

ce [I

nd./h

a]

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000


Num

ber o

f spe

cies

8

10

12

14

16

18


Div

ersi

ty [H

']

1,3

1,4

1,5

1,6

1,7

1,8

1,9


StUKplus: Pelagic Fish Species in alpha ventus

Mackerel

Herring and Sprat

Horse mackerel

Challenge:

• to detect and quantify the possible fish accumulationin the close vicinity to the foundations

• to detect long-term wind farm effects and to distinguish them from other effects (e.g. seasonal / interannual variety, climate change)

• New techniques, first offshore test 2011

Herring and Sprat

Horse mackerel

Mackerel

Herring and Sprat

Horse mackerel


Homepage:http://www.bsh.de/stukplus

Thank you!

Announcement:RAVE- ConferenceMay 8-10 2012www.RAVE-offshore.de

co-ordination of ecological research accompanying the alpha

Documents