Project's Title HOTSPOTS IN THE GRID: AVIAN SENSITIVITY AND VULNERABILITY TO COLLISION RISK FROM ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE INTERACTIONS IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA 2. Project Description Wind turbines and power lines can cause bird mortality due to collision or electrocution. The biodiversity impacts of energy infrastructure (EI) can be minimised through effective landscape-scale planning and mitigation. The identification of high-vulnerability areas is urgently needed to assess potential cumulative impacts of EI while supporting the transition to zero-carbon energy. We collected GPS location data from 1,454 birds from 27 species susceptible to collision within Europe and North Africa and identified areas where tracked birds are most at risk of colliding with existing EI. Sensitivity to EI development was estimated for wind turbines and power lines by calculating the proportion of GPS flight locations at heights where birds were at risk of collision and accounting for species’ specific susceptibility to collision. We mapped the maximum collision sensitivity value obtained across all species, in each 5x5 km grid cell, across Europe and North Africa. Vulnerability to collision was obtained by overlaying the sensitivity surfaces with density of wind turbines and transmission power lines. Results: Exposure to risk varied across the 27 species, with some species flying consistently at heights where they risk collision. For areas with sufficient tracking data within Europe and North Africa, 13.6% of the area was classified as high sensitivity to wind turbines and 9.4% was classified as high sensitivity to transmission power lines. Sensitive areas were concentrated within important migratory corridors and along coastlines. Hotspots of vulnerability to collision with wind turbines and transmission power lines (2018 data) were scattered across the study region with highest concentrations occurring in central Europe, near the strait of Gibraltar and the Bosporus in Turkey. Synthesis and Applications: We identify the areas of Europe and North Africa that are most sensitive for the specific populations of birds for which sufficient GPS tracking data at high spatial resolution were available. We also map vulnerability hotspots where mitigation at existing EI should be prioritised to reduce collision risks. As tracking data availability improves our method could be applied to more species and areas to help reduce bird-EI conflicts. 3. Table of Contents (Optional) energy_density_surface_etrs.zip : Density of wind turbines and Transmission power lines in Europe and North Africa. Derived from windpower.net data for wind farms and OpenStreetMap data provided by the OpenInfra project for Transmission Powerlines. byNID_winter_27012020.zip: Non breeding sensitivity and vulnerability surfaces, use the categories. byNID_summer_27012020.zip: Breeding sensitivity and vulnerability surfaces, use the categories. byNID_family_27012021.zip: Sensitivity and vulnerability surface by taxonomic family in a single file, will need to split file to map individual families, use the categories. byNID_27012021.zip: Sensitivity and vulnerability surface, use the categories. 4. How to Install and Run the Project If you are working on a project that a user needs to install or run locally in a machine like a "POS", you should include the steps required to install your project and also the required dependencies if any. Provide a step-by-step description of how to get the development environment set and running. 5. How to Use the Project These shapefiles allow users to determine if a proposed power line or wind turbine development is within a known high sensitivity area where it would likely create additional colision risk for birds. The vulnerability categories highlight the areas where mitigation to reduce risk from existing energy infrastructure should be prioritised. 6. Credits Jethro G. Gauld1, João P Silva2,3, Philip W. Atkinson4, Paul Record5, Marta Acácio1, Volen Arkumarev6, Julio Blas7, Willem Bouten8, Niall Burton4, Inês Catry2,3, Jocelyn Champagnon9, Gary D. Clewley10, Mindaugas Dagys11, Olivier Duriez12, Klaus-Michael Exo13, Wolfgang Fiedler14, Andrea Flack14, 15, Guilad Friedemann16, Johannes Fritz17, Clara Garcia-Ripolles18, Stefan Garthe19, Dimitri Giunchi20, Atanas Grozdanov21, 22, Roi Harel23, Elizabeth M. Humphreys10, René Janssen24, Andrea Kölzsch14, Olga Kulikova25, Thomas K. Lameris26, Pascual López-López27, Elizabeth A. Masden28, Flavio Monti29, Ran Nathan23, Stoyan Nikolov6, Steffen Oppel30, Hristo Peshev22, 31, Louis Phipps32, Ivan Pokrovsky14, 32, 34, Viola H. Ross-Smith4, Victoria Saravia35, Emily S. Scragg4, Andrea Sforzi36, Emilian Stoynov22, Chris Thaxter4, Wouter Van Steelant8, Mariëlle van Toor37, Bernd Vorneweg14, Jonas Waldenström37, Martin Wikelski14, Ramūnas Žydelis38, Aldina M. A. Franco1 1School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, 2CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal, 3CIBIO/InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, 4British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, UK, 5Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, 6Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, BirdLife Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria, 7Department of Applied Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Seville, Spain, 8Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 9Tour du Valat Research institute for conservation of Mediterranean wetlands, Arles, France, 10British Trust for Ornithology Scotland, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling, UK, 11Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania, 12Centre of Evolutionary and Functional Ecology, CNRS Campus, Montpellier, France, 13 Institute of Avian Research, Vogelwarte, Helgoland, Germany, 14Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell am Bodensee, Germany, 15Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany, 16Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, 17Waldrappteam Conservation and Research, Mutters, Austria, 18Environment Science and Solutions S.L., Valencia, Spain, 19Research and Technology Centre (FTZ), Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, 20Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, 21Department of Zoology and Anthropology, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria, 22Fund for wild Flora and Fauna, Bulgaria, 23Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel, 24Bionet Natuuronderzoek, EL Stein (Lb), The Netherlands, 25Institute of Biological Problems of the North, FEB RAS, Magadan, Russia, 26Netherlands, Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, Netherlands, 27Movement Ecology Lab, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain, Environmental Research 28Institute, North Highland College - UHI, University of the Highlands and Islands, Thurso, UK. , 29Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, Siena, Italy, 30Centre for Conservation Science Research, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Cambridge, UK, 31Department of Geography, Ecology and Environmental Protection, South-West University Neofit Rilski, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 32The Vulture Conservation Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland, 33Institute of Plant & Animal Ecology, UB RAS, Ekaterinburg, Russia, 34Institute of Biological Problems of the North, FEB RAS, Magadan, Russia, 35Hellenic Ornithological Society (BirdLife Greece), Athens, Greece, 36Maremma Natural History Museum, Strada Corsini 5, 58100 Grosseto, Italy, 37Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden, 38DHI, DK-2970 Hørsholm, Denmark 7. License CC0 Work may be redistributed and used for non-commercial and commercial purposes. Data may be copied and published including for commercial use but all used of the data must properly attribute Gauld et. al. (2022): HOTSPOTS IN THE GRID: AVIAN SENSITIVITY AND VULNERABILITY TO COLLISION RISK FROM ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE INTERACTIONS IN EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA; Journal of Applied Ecology, Manuscript Reference JAPPL-2021-00483