Understanding How Marine Renewable Device Operations Influence Fine Scale Habitat Use and Behaviour of Marine Vertebrates (RESPONSE)

随着潮汐和波浪装置的快速发展和即将部署以及海上风力发电的扩大，迫切需要了解这些发展将如何影响海洋野生动物。现有的规章和缓解措施是以假定的影响为基础的。缺乏信息意味着规章可能过于繁琐，建议的缓解措施可能没有必要或无效。有一个明确的需要，以提高我们的理解，动物如何感知和响应设备，以及这些反应如何影响他们的行为，分布和最终fitness.The RESPONSE项目是一个多学科的研究，侧重于海洋可再生设备（MRD）和海洋脊椎动物的细尺度分布和行为的变化之间的因果关系。该项目的总体目标是确定和量化负面后果的实际风险，从而消除行业和自然环境风险规模中的一个关键不确定因素。主要目标是：1。了解利益相关者如何看待对行业和环境的风险。在高潮汐和波浪能地点测量海洋野生动物的精细分布，以了解海豹、鲸目动物、鸟类和大型鱼类如何利用这些地区。分析MRD产生的声学、视觉和电磁信号，并评估海洋野生动物对这些信号的反应。使用栖息地偏好模型的结果来推断小尺度和大尺度下与MRD相关的影响和回避区域。发展有效的缓解方法我们会透过一系列互相关连的子计划，达致这些目标。将英国范围内的监管机构、保护团体和行业聚集在一起，评估与海洋野生动物的负面相互作用对行业和环境造成的风险。2.对海豹使用新的高分辨率全球定位系统发射器，对鼠海豚、海鸟和鱼类使用最先进的被动声学、主动声纳和视觉观察技术，以记录它们在运作中的波浪和潮汐试验场和未开发的高能潮汐试验场及其周围的生境使用和行为的详细情况。这些研究将与FLOWBEC进行协调，FLOWBEC是NERC/Defra资助的另一个项目，用于监测这些高能量站点的海洋环境的物理特性3。执行一项物理测量方案，以确定有可能对海洋野生生物造成干扰的MRD的产出。4.对圈养海豹和野生自由放养海豹和鼠海豚进行一系列有控制的接触/行为反应试验。5.利用视觉和听觉观测数据以及现有MRD的作业时间表，评估海鸟对MRD作业的反应。1至5的结果将用于描述MRD对个体动物的短期影响，即它们如何对刺激做出反应，以及中长期影响，即它们如何改变其运动和行为以响应暴露于刺激。这些结果将被用作EBAO项目的直接输入，EBAO项目是NERC/Defra资助的另一个项目，用于模拟大规模MRD阵列的潜在影响。该项目将使人们对MRD不利影响的存在和重要性的认识发生一个阶段性变化，并提供预测MRD影响的能力。

With the rapid development and imminent deployment of tidal and wave devices and the expansion of offshore wind power there is a pressing need to understand how marine wildlife is going to be affected by these developments. Existing regulations and mitigation measures are based on assumed effects. Lack of information means that the regulations may be either too onerous and recommended mitigation measures may be unnecessary or ineffective. There is a clear need to improve our understanding of how animals perceive and respond to devices and how these responses affect their behaviour, distribution and ultimately fitness.The RESPONSE project is a multi-disciplinary study focussing on causal links between marine renewable devices (MRD) and changes in the fine-scale distribution and behaviour of marine vertebrates. The overall aim of the project is to identify and quantify actual risk of negative consequences and therefore remove one key layer of uncertainty in the scale of risk to the industry and natural environment. The main objectives are to:1. understand how stakeholders see the risks to the industry and to the environment.2. measure the fine scale distribution of marine wildlife in high tidal and wave energy sites to understand how seals, cetaceans, birds and large fish use such areas.3. characterise acoustic, visual and electromagnetic signals that MRDs produce and assess the reactions of marine wildlife to those cues.4. use the results in habitat preference models to infer zones of influence and avoidance associated with MRDs at both small and large scales.5. develop effective mitigation methods We will achieve these objectives through a set of inter-related sub projects that will:-1. bring together a UK wide group of regulators, conservation groups and industry to assess the perception of risk to the industry and environment posed by negative interactions with marine wildlife. 2. use novel, high resolution GPS transmitters for seals and state of the art passive acoustics, active sonar and visual observation techniques for porpoises, seabirds and fish to record details of their habitat use and behaviour in and around operational wave and tidal test sites and an un-developed high energy tide site. These studies will be co-ordinated with FLOWBEC, another NERC/Defra funded project monitoring the physical characteristics of the marine environment at these high energy sites3. carryout a programme of physical measurements to characterise the outputs of MRDs that have a potential to cause disturbance to marine wildlife. 4. carry out a series of controlled exposure/behaviour response trials with captive seals and with wild free ranging seals and porpoises. 5. use visual and acoustic observation data and the operating schedules of existing MRDs to assess the responses of seabirds to MRD operations. The results of 1 to 5 will be used to describe the effects of MRDs on individual animals over the short term, i.e. how they react to the stimuli, and over the medium to long term, i.e. how they change their movements and behaviour in response to exposure to the stimuli. These results will be used as direct input to the EBAO project, another NERC/Defra funded project modeling the potential impacts of large scale arrays of MRDs. This project will provide a step change in knowledge about the existence and importance of adverse effects of MRDs and provide an ability to predict impacts of