The large scale impact of offshore windfarm structures on pelagic primary production in the southern North Sea
Slavik, K.; Lemmen, C.; Zhang, W.; Kerimoglu, O.; Klingbeil, K.; Wirtz, K.W. (2019). The large scale impact of offshore windfarm structures on pelagic primary production in the southern North Sea. Hydrobiologia 845(1): 35-53. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3653-5
In: Hydrobiologia. Springer: The Hague. ISSN 0018-8158; e-ISSN 1573-5117, meer
The increasing demand for renewable energy is projected to result in a 40-fold increase in offshore wind electricity in the European Union by 2030. Despite a great number of local impact studies for selected marine populations, the regional ecosystem impacts of offshore windfarm structures are not yet well investigated nor understood. Our study investigates whether the accumulation of epifauna, dominated by the filter feeder Mytilus edulis, on turbine structures affects pelagic primary production and ecosystem functioning in the southern North Sea. We estimate the anthropogenically increased potential distribution based on the current projections of turbine locations and understanding of M.edulis settlement patterns. This distribution is integrated through the Modular Coupling System for Shelves and Coasts to state-of-the-art hydrodynamic and ecosystem models. Our simulations reveal non-negligible changes in regional annual primary production of up to a few percent, and larger changes (up to ±10% ) of the phytoplankton stock, and thus water clarity, during the bloom period. Our setup and modular coupling are effective tools for system scale studies of other environmental changes arising from large-scale offshore wind-farming such as ocean physics and distribution of pelagic top predators.
Dataset
Lemmen, Carsten; Slavik, Kaela; Kerimoglu, Onur; Klingbeil, Knut; Zhang, Wenyan; Wirtz, Kai W (2018): Simulated net primary productivity (NPP) in the southern North Sea 2003-2013 forced by epistructural and epibenthic reconstructed blue mussel filtration. PANGAEA,, meer
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