Solar farm management influences breeding bird responses in an arable-dominated landscape

Abstract

Solar farms are increasing in Britain, but their biodiversity impact is under-studied. We explored bird populations on six solar farms in the East Anglian Fens, using an adapted Breeding Bird Survey across 23.2 km of transects, recording birds seen or heard within 100 m of transects (4 ha survey area). Solar farms were divided by management styles: simple habitat solar (10 transects) and mixed habitat solar (13 transects). We also surveyed 15.2 km of transects in arable farmland. Solar farms contained a greater bird abundance and species richness than arable farmland, but this varied with solar farm management (predicted abundance ±SE per 4 ha: solar with mixed habitat = 31.5 ± 6.4, solar with simple habitat = 17 ± 4.9, arable = 11.9 ± 2.6; predicted species richness ± SE per 4 ha: solar with mixed habitat = 13.5 ± 1.1, solar with simple habitat = 5.3 ± 0.6, arable = 5.5 ± 0.6). Our findings suggest that solar farms can benefit biodiversity in arable-dominated landscapes, especially when managed with biodiversity in mind.