Offshore wind farms are rapidly being permitted along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Exposure of northern gannet (Morus bassanus) to multiple wind farms could affect the population because gannets are vulnerable to both displacement and collision. A critical question is whether wind‐farm siting decisions can reduce cumulative exposure of gannets. We quantified how 3 different wind‐farm siting scenarios would cumulatively expose gannets. Two independent gannet abundance data sets were used to ensure robustness of the analysis: 1) individual tracking data from birds captured in the mid‐Atlantic region of the United States from 2012–2015 and 2) relative abundance models developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from surveys conducted from 1978–2014 along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Our results indicate that for initial development, projects sited close to shore and in shallow areas exposed gannets at the greatest rates; however, no siting scenario effectively avoided exposing gannets because of the birds’ broad distribution across the outer continental shelf. These findings suggest that gannets will be cumulatively exposed regardless of siting scenario and management actions should focus on efforts to minimize adverse effects at each wind farm rather than avoiding exposure through siting decisions. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

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评估北部塘鹅对海上风电场的累积暴露

美国大西洋沿岸的海上风电场正在迅速获得允许。北部塘鹅（桑属巴桑属的暴露）到多个风电场可能会影响人口，因为塘鹅易受排水和碰撞的影响。一个关键问题是风电场选址决策是否可以减少塘鹅的累积暴露。我们量化了3种不同风电场选址方案如何累积暴露塘鹅。两个独立的塘鹅丰度数据集用于确保分析的稳健性：1）2012年至2015年在美国中大西洋地区捕获的鸟类的个体跟踪数据，以及2）国家海洋和大气局开发的相对丰度模型1978年至2014年在美国大西洋沿岸进行的调查中的行政管理。我们的结果表明，对于最初的开发，位于海岸附近和浅水区的项目以最大的速率暴露于塘鹅。然而，由于鸟类在整个大陆架的广泛分布，因此没有选址方案可以有效地避免暴露塘鹅。这些发现表明，无论选址情况如何，塘鹅都将被累计暴露，管理行动应着重于最大程度地减少每个风电场的不利影响，而不是通过选址决策避免暴露。©2020野生动物协会。