Search

Governments worldwide are setting ambitious targets for offshore renewable energy development (ORD). However, deployment is constrained by a lack of understanding of the environmental consequences of ORD, with impacts on protected birds forming a key environmental consenting challenge. Assessing the impacts of ORD on marine birds is challenging, utilizing interlinked approaches to understand complex behavioural, energetic, and demographic processes. Consequently, there is considerable uncertainty associated with ORD assessments for marine birds, with current methods failing to quantify uncertainty in a scientifically robust, evidence-based manner. This leads to a high degree of precaution and a lack of confidence in the evidence used to inform ORD consenting decisions. We review the methods used to estimate ornithological ORD impacts in the UK, a country at the forefront of ORD. We identify areas in which uncertainty quantification could be improved through statistical modelling, data collection, or adaptation of the assessment process. We develop a framework for end-to-end quantification of uncertainty, integrating uncertainty estimates from individual stages of the assessment process. Finally, we provide research recommendations to better quantify and reduce uncertainty, to lower future ORD consenting risk. These recommendations extend beyond the UK and could improve impact assessments in other countries with different legislative frameworks.

1. A survey was made of swede fields in Cumberland and it was found that more than half the gross acreage was affected with Brown Heart to a greater or lesser extent.2. The water-soluble boron content of soils from affected and non-affected fields was determined. In general the boron content of fields showing Brown Heart was less than 0·30 parts per million.3. There is a close association between soil texture and the incidence of boron deficiency, a greater proportion of cases occurring on light soils.4. Recent liming rather than the actual pH. level of the soil appears to be correlated with the occurrence of Brown Heart in the field.5. It would appear that some prediction of the possibility of Brown Heart occurring might be made from a knowledge of the ‘available boron’ content of the soil taken in conjunction with such factors as the soil-texture and liming history of the field concerned.

The application of an in vitro technique for the routine determination of digestible organic matter (d.o.m.) on comparatively large numbers of dried silage samples is described using a drying technique found to be superior to previous routine drying methods. Results are given of a study of the effect of drying the fresh silage at different temperatures prior to the determination of the digestible organic matter. A close correlation has been obtained between the d.o.m. values on fresh silage and those on material dried at 85 °C for 18 h, but the correlation is unsatisfactory with silage dried at 100 °C.

The conditions necessary for extracting the crimson diphenylcarbazone-lead complex into xylene from an aqueous cyanide solution have been examined. A procedure is described for the spectrophotometric determination of lead isolated by means of diphenylthiocarbazone.

The determination of available lysine in proteins by their reactions with 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulphonic acid has been examined in relation to the preparation of the sample, the conditions of the reaction, the hydrolysis of the trinitrophenylated protein and the effects of other amino-acids and related compounds. From these observations a revised method is proposed for the rapid routine screening of animal protein concentrates used in animal feeds. With the use of DL-lysine as a standard instead of Iµ-trinitrophenyllysine and with a simplified hydrolysis procedure, the technique is suitable for examining comparatively large numbers of samples. Interference by other amino compounds is slight, except that by cadaverine, hydroxylysine and ornithine.Results are given for the levels of available lysine in a range of animal proteins, which compare closely with values obtained by the Carpenter procedure in which 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene is used.