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- Bakker, Roel H., et al.
(författare)
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Impact of wind turbine sound on annoyance, self-reported sleep disturbance and psychological distress
- 2012
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 425, s. 42-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose of the research: The present government in the Netherlands intends to realize a substantial growth ofwind energy before 2020, both onshore and offshore. Wind turbines, when positioned in the neighborhood ofresidents may cause visual annoyance and noise annoyance. Studies on other environmental sound sources,such as railway, road traffic, industry and aircraft noise show that (long-term) exposure to sound can havenegative effects other than annoyance from noise. This study aims to elucidate the relation between exposureto the sound of wind turbines and annoyance, self-reported sleep disturbance and psychological distress ofpeople that live in their vicinity. Data were gathered by questionnaire that was sent by mail to a representativesample of residents of the Netherlands living in the vicinity of wind turbinesPrincipal results: A dose–response relationship was found between immission levels of wind turbine soundand selfreported noise annoyance. Sound exposure was also related to sleep disturbance and psychologicaldistress among those who reported that they could hear the sound, however not directly but with noiseannoyance acting as a mediator. Respondents living in areas with other background sounds were less affectedthan respondents in quiet areas.Major conclusions: People living in the vicinity of wind turbines are at risk of being annoyed by the noise, anadverse effect in itself. Noise annoyance in turn could lead to sleep disturbance and psychological distress. Nodirect effects of wind turbine noise on sleep disturbance or psychological stress has been demonstrated,which means that residents, who do not hear the sound, or do not feel disturbed, are not adversely affected.
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| 2. |
- Biurrun, Idoia, et al.
(författare)
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Benchmarking plant diversity of Palaearctic grasslands and other open habitats
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Vegetation Science. - Oxford : John Wiley & Sons. - 1100-9233 .- 1654-1103. ; 32:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Journal of Vegetation Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association for Vegetation Science.Aims: Understanding fine-grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine-grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the former three groups). Location: Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods: We used 126,524 plots of eight standard grain sizes from the GrassPlot database: 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 m2 and calculated the mean richness and standard deviations, as well as maximum, minimum, median, and first and third quartiles for each combination of grain size, taxonomic group, biome, region, vegetation type and phytosociological class. Results: Patterns of plant diversity in vegetation types and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Overall, secondary (mostly semi-natural) grasslands and natural grasslands are the richest vegetation type. The open-access file ”GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks” and the web tool “GrassPlot Diversity Explorer” are now available online (https://edgg.org/databases/GrasslandDiversityExplorer) and provide more insights into species richness patterns in the Palaearctic open habitats. Conclusions: The GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks provide high-quality data on species richness in open habitat types across the Palaearctic. These benchmark data can be used in vegetation ecology, macroecology, biodiversity conservation and data quality checking. While the amount of data in the underlying GrassPlot database and their spatial coverage are smaller than in other extensive vegetation-plot databases, species recordings in GrassPlot are on average more complete, making it a valuable complementary data source in macroecology. © 2021 The Authors.
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