BIODIVERSITY

We have seen PVDP claim that biodiversity will be enhanced by the Botley West Utility-Scale Solar Power Station so what is this biodiversity thing? Put simply, biodiversity is the variation in life at all scales on Earth. Scientists consider it at the level of genetic variation within species (e.g. think about eye or hair colour in humans), the number of species within and between localities or the variety of habitats and ecosystems within a region. 

Most of us consider biodiversity on the basis of how many species we might see in a location, say in your garden, or whilst out on a walk in the countryside. Biodiversity is important because it underpins the services that nature provides to us. Think about pollination performed by insects, including the annoying ones like wasps, and the benefits in terms of food crops.

The government have put in place legislation that all major projects should have a net beneficial effect on biodiversity. However, considering whether or not a project succeeds in biodiversity gain is a very complex and controversial matter. For example, a project like Botley West may remove hedgerows for placement of infrastructure or to simply gain access to land for the development. Environmental impacts assessments may attempt to mitigate such losses by poposing the replanting hedges. This sounds straightforward but scientific studies tell us that the age of hedges is important to the number of species that are found living in them. In southern England, for example, the number of plant species found in 30m of hedgerow is about one per hundred years of age! Moreover, ancient hedgerows are dominated by woody species that are more stress tolerant than those of younger hedges. They can also contain a greater number of invertebrate species.

PVDP have already claimed that replacement of intensive farming practices with solar panels and associated infrastructure will lead to biodiversity benefits. This completely ignores that farmland, despite being heavily modified by humans provides important habitat for many species giving food and shelter within fields and the seminatural habitats on field margins, like hedges.

A great example of this is the yellowhammer (Emberiza citronella), in my opinion amongst the most beautiful bird species in the U.K. One of the great pleasures of walking in the fields to the north of Cassington is seeing this bright yellow species boldly perched at the top of a hedge or hearing its calls. It is a common sight in the farmland between Cassington and Bladon yet nationally this species is in serious decline, so much so that the RSPB has added it to their national bird Red List. Yellowhammers breed predominantly in farmland hedgerows, and they depend on specific hedgerow characteristics and the rotation of adjacent crops. Replacement of these crops by solar panels does not bode well for this species locally. Another common mitigation used for wildlife is to move it to somewhere else. This is common practice with amphibians and reptiles yet as often as not scientific studies show that such translocations of these species fail.

The take home message of all of this is that biodiversity and the needs of species, including those threatened nationally, are highly complex matters. Simple claims of the benefits of large-scale projects like Botley West to biodiversity by developers, supporting councillors or other interested parties should never be taken at face value. Scratching beneath the surface will almost always demonstrate the truth is far more complex than is stated and invariably even where some species may gain, others, including species of national conservation priority may lose and nature will be a little poorer for it….

And here’s a couple of interesting in depth articles; 

1. Bat activity proven to go down here
2. A balanced review showing that solar is negative on biodiversity here

Read also our related webpage headed MEADOWS IN DANGER