Abstract
The expansion of offshore wind energy in UK waters requires careful consideration of how marine predators and their prey interact with wind farm developments. The PrePARED project studies these ecological relationships at wind farms in the Moray Firth and Firth of Forth, Scotland. The wider broader applicability of these findings depends on how environmentally representative these sites are of other development areas. For example, if findings could be reliably transferred to environmentally similar locations, they may aid streamlining of future impact assessments and advance our understanding of cumulative effects across multiple wind farms.
To assess the potential for transferability, this report analyses environmental conditions at the PrePARED study sites in comparison to the wider UK marine area and other wind farms in the region. The analysis examined environmental data, across four seasons, on sea bottom temperature, salinity, water stratification, tidal speed, seabed slope, water depth, distance to shore and seabed substrate.
The east coast of Scotland and North Sea exhibited high similarity to the PrePARED study sites, with seasonal variations predominantly driven by sea bottom temperature and water vertical stratification. The Dogger Bank area revealed high year-round similarity to the Moray Firth PrePARED sites, suggesting that certain environmental characteristics persist across larger spatial scales, despite considerable geographical distance. Future planned wind farms in these areas were more like the PrePARED study sites than existing operational wind farms. Wind farms using grounded jacket system revealed significantly higher similarity to Firth of Forth PrePARED study sites in comparison to wind farms using floating and grounded monopile seabed attachment methods.
This report indicates potential transferability of PrePARED findings, based on environmental similarity, to other UK offshore wind farms, particularly off Scotland's east coast and in the North Sea. These regions are set to host many of the UK's future offshore wind farm developments.