State of the Science Workshop on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy 2020: Cumulative Impacts

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The 2020 State of the Science Workshop, hosted by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) was held virtually from November 16-20, 2020. This workshop brought together over 430 stakeholders engaged with environmental and wildlife research relevant to offshore wind energy development. Workshop sessions focused on assessing the state of the knowledge regarding offshore wind development's cumulative effects on populations and ecosystems. 

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Following plenary presentations in November, seven workgroups formed to identify research priorities for understanding offshore wind's cumulative impacts on sea turtles, marine mammals, fishes and aquatic invertebrates, benthos, birds, bats, and oceanographic processes in the eastern United States. A final webinar in May 2021 brought together the leads from the seven workgroups to present the groups' recommendations and discuss common themes.

Highlights

With over 430 attendees from 21 states and 20 countries, the workshop brought together a diverse group to share knowledge on cumulative impacts to wildlife from offshore wind development.  Workshop presentations included 23 plenary speakers and 20 lightning talks, with discussions focused around cumulative impact frameworks, current knowledge on different wildlife taxa, known and hypothesized cumulative effects to wildlife from offshore wind energy development, and opportunities for regional coordination and collaboration to continue improving our understanding of offshore wind and marine ecosystems.

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Workshop Goals

This workshop brought together scientists to present and discuss their research. Workshop goals included:

•  Assessing the state of the knowledge regarding offshore wind development's cumulative effects on populations and ecosystems, and

• Working to identify key studies that could be conducted in the next 3-5 years to improve our understanding of cumulative biological impacts as the offshore wind industry develops in the U.S.

Scientific Program

Terms of Use for Presentation PDFs

Links to presentations from the workshop are provided below where available, courtesy of the presentation authors. These presentation files are provided for personal edification only, and should not be cited without contacting the author(s) directly. Users should not reuse or redistribute slides, or images on these slides, without express permission from the presentation author(s).

Monday, November 16

Session 1: Framework for Understanding Cumulative Impacts from Offshore Wind

Moderator:
Howard Rosenbaum, Wildlife Conservation Society

Opening remarks from NYSERDA

Doreen Harris, Acting president and CEO of the New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)

Welcome and Setting the Stage

Gregory Lampman, NYSERDA

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Cumulative anthropogenic impacts on the world's oceans

Sara Maxwell, University of Washington

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Framework for defining the scope of cumulative adverse effects assessments for offshore wind

Wing Goodale, Biodiversity Research Institute

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An ecosystem functioning approach for thinking about cumulative impacts

Steven Degraer, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

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Metapopulation PVA: Developing methods for reducing uncertainty in impact assessments

Julie Miller, Marine Scotland Science

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Q & A / Panel discussion

Tuesday, November 17

Session 2: European Efforts to Understand Cumulative Impacts from Offshore Wind

Moderator: Sophie Hartfield Lewis, Ørsted

Assessing cumulative effects: Challenges faced by offshore wind developers

Madeline Hodge, Ørsted 

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WinMon.BE: The Belgian countrywide research program to understand cumulative impacts of offshore wind development

Steven Degraer, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

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Offshore wind farms: Cumulative impact assessment in the Netherlands

Astrid Potiek, Bureau Waardenburg

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Developing a cumulative effects framework (CEF) for key ecological receptors in relation to offshore wind in the UK

Kate Searle, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

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Q & A / Panel discussion

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Session 3: Lightning Talks Round 1

Moderator: Matt Robertson, Vineyard Wind

5-minute submitted talks on offshore wind and wildlife topics, followed by Q&A.

Abstracts | Presentations

Thursday, November 19

Session 6: Current Knowledge on Cumulative Impacts III

Moderator:

Francine Kershaw, Natural Resources Defense Council

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Decision framework to identify populations that are vulnerable to population-level effects of disturbance

Cormac Booth, SMRU Consulting

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Cumulative noise impacts to marine mammals from offshore wind development and operations

Brandon Southall, Southall Environmental Associates Inc. & Howard Rosenbaum, Wildlife Conservation Society

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Vessel encounter risk model tool

Mary Jo Barkaszi, CSA Ocean Sciences Inc.

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Population impacts to bats from wind energy development

Cris Hein, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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Q & A / Panel discussion

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Session 7: Lightning Talks Round 2

Moderator: Jenny Briot, Avangrid Renewables

5-minute submitted talks on offshore wind and wildlife topics, followed by Q&A.

Abstracts | Presentations

Session 9: Informal Breakout Groups

Group leads for the seven work groups hosted informal discussions to obtain initial input from workshop attendees. Learn more about work groups here.

May 21, 2021

The culmination webinar brought together the leads from the seven workgroups to share each group's research recommendations and discuss common themes.

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View Recording

View Presentation Slides

Photo credits: Loggerhead sea turtle © Kate Sutherland; Offshore wind farm © Nicholas Doherty; Whale and birds © Humberto Braojos; Benthic habitat © Arhnue Tan; Offshore wind farm © Chuyuss