The challenge
Conservation has traditionally focused on terrestrial and aquatic habitats. SKYSCAPE starts from the idea that the airspace is also habitat. For birds, the aerosphere is used for migration, foraging, soaring, dispersal, and daily movement, but it is increasingly affected by wind turbines, power lines, buildings, communication towers, light pollution, and urbanization.
Project aim
SKYSCAPE aims to understand how anthropogenic pressures affect birds in aerial habitats and to develop tools that can inform conservation planning, wind-energy spatial planning, and urban biodiversity management.
Objectives
Identify the most important factors contributing to bird collisions at wind turbines.
Model migratory bird movement and map critical aerial connectivity corridors
Use metabolomic profiling to reveal responses to urban environments
