The North American Great Plains contains > 80,000 wetlands (playas) that are habitat resources for birds. This region has also undergone recent expansion of wind energy development. Areas of overlap between playas and wind energy structures are potential wildlife hazards. We identified areas where conservation values of playas may be compromised by proximity to wind turbines. We mapped where playas co-occur with wind-energy structures in a 902,765 km2 area encompassing portions of six U.S. states. At a smaller focal level (59 ~458 km2 Christmas Bird Count [CBC] circles), we developed a habitat quality index based on playa area, density, and inundation frequency, and spatially associated values with locations of wind turbines; we then examined CBC data for three focal species from 1984-2015. Over 38% of playas were within 8 km of at least one structure, and 1.3% were within 100 m; ~90% of turbines/structures were within 8 km of a playa (2.7% within 100 m). Six CBC circles had high-quality habitat overlapping with high density of wind turbines. Another seven were high quality with few structures, representing valuable areas for future conservation efforts. However, lack of consistent time-series data constrained our ability to detect effects of wind-energy infrastructure installation on birds. Mapping high-quality habitat areas coincident with wind turbines is a way of identifying overlapping areas of wildlife habitat and sources of mortality without relying on population surveys that may be problematic or lacking altogether. Establishment of innovative protocols will be critical for detecting effects of wind-energy installation, a growing economic sector.

中文翻译：

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确定北美大平原中南部的湿地和风力涡轮机重叠区域

北美大平原包含超过 80,000 个湿地（海滩），它们是鸟类的栖息地资源。该地区最近也经历了风能开发的扩展。Playas 和风能结构之间的重叠区域是潜在的野生动物危害。我们确定了靠近风力涡轮机可能会损害 Playas 保护价值的区域。我们绘制了 902,765 平方公里的区域（包括美国六个州的部分地区）与风能结构共存的区域。在较小的焦点级别（59 ~ 458 平方公里圣诞鸟数 [CBC] 圈），我们根据游乐区面积、密度和淹没频率以及与风力涡轮机位置的空间相关值开发了栖息地质量指数；然后我们检查了 1984-2015 年三个焦点物种的 CBC 数据。超过 38% 的游乐区位于至少一个建筑物的 8 公里范围内，1.3% 位于 100 m 以内；约 90% 的涡轮机/结构位于海滩 8 公里以内（2.7% 位于 100 m 以内）。六个 CBC 圈具有高质量的栖息地，与高密度的风力涡轮机重叠。另外七个是高质量的，结构很少，代表了未来保护工作的宝贵领域。然而，缺乏一致的时间序列数据限制了我们检测风能基础设施安装对鸟类影响的能力。绘制与风力涡轮机重合的高质量栖息地区域是一种确定野生动物栖息地和死亡来源重叠区域的方法，而无需依赖可能有问题或完全缺乏的人口调查。建立创新协议对于检测风能安装的影响至关重要，