ECOLOGY - SURVEYING FOR BATS FEATURE SPONSOR MOBILE MARINE RADAR SYSTEMS EXACT FLIGHTLINES
The National Wildlife Management Centre (NWMC) at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency uses mobile marine radar systems, equipped with specialist software, to monitor the movements of birds and bats.
They use X-band radar to detect bat movements, with bird and insect targets filtered out of the raw radar data and used an x-band radar in a vertical plain to monitor altitudinal distribution of bats (see figure 1).
Radar offers the ability to detect exact flightlines (see figure 2), and is able to monitor movements of several individuals at any one time. Radar can be combined with acoustic surveys in order to provide an indication of the species present.
Figures 2 & 3 – Individual bat flightlines.
Figure 1 – Spatial distribution of bat targets.
This work looked at two areas adjacent to Noctule Nyctalus noctula maternity roosts. Bats were detected up to a height of 800 metres. Data showed trends in use of the sites surrounding the maternity roosts, for instance, time of first emergence and peak usage of airspace surrounding a roost site.
NWMC operates two mobile radar systems and will be carrying out further work in 2014 developing new methods in radar bat monitoring, allowing further insights into spatial distributions and movements of bats around wind farms.
The National Wildlife Management Centre (NWMC)
12
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116