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张，迫切需要了解这些发展将如何影响海洋野生动物。现有的条例和缓解措施是基于假设的效果。缺乏信息意味着条例可能过于繁重，而建议的缓解措施可能是不必要的或无效的。显然，我们需要提高对动物如何感知和响应设备的理解，以及这些反应如何影响它们的行为、分布和最终的适应性。响应项目是一项多学科研究，重点关注海洋可再生装置（MRD）与海洋脊椎动物精细分布和行为变化之间的因果关系。该项目的总体目标是识别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一个关键的不确定因素。主要目标是：1。了解利益相关者如何看待行业和环境的风险。测量高潮汐能和波浪能地区海洋野生动物的精细分布，了解海豹、鲸类、鸟类和大型鱼类如何利用这些地区。描述mrd产生的声音、视觉和电磁信号的特征，并评估海洋野生动物对这些信号的反应。4 .利用生境偏好模型的结果，在小尺度和大尺度上推断与mrd有关的影响区和回避区。我们将通过一系列相互关联的子项目实现这些目标，这些子项目将：-1。将英国范围内的监管机构、保护组织和工业界联合起来，评估与海洋野生动物的负面互动对工业和环境造成的风险。2. 为海豹使用新颖的高分辨率GPS发射机，为海豚、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，记录它们在工作波浪和潮汐测试点及未开发的高能量潮汐点及其周围的栖息地使用和行为细节。这些研究将与另一个由NERC/Defra资助的项目FLOWBEC进行协调，该项目监测这些高能量地点的海洋环境的物理特征。实施一项物理测量计划，以描述可能对海洋野生动物造成干扰的mrd的输出特征。4. 对圈养海豹和野生自由放养的海豹和海豚进行一系列受控的暴露/行为反应试验。5. 利用视觉和声学观测数据，以及现有MRD的运作时间表，评估海鸟对MRD运作的反应。第1至5项的结果将用于描述MRDs对单个动物的短期影响，即它们对刺激的反应，以及中长期影响，即它们在暴露于刺激时如何改变其运动和行为。这些结果将作为EBAO项目的直接输入，EBAO项目是另一个由NERC/Defra资助的项目，该项目模拟了大规模mrd阵列的潜在影响。该项目将提供关于mrd的存在和不良影响的重要性的知识的逐步变化，并提供预测影响的能力

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