Responses of birds and mammals to long-established wind farms in India

Wind turbines have been recognised as an alternative and clean-energy source with a low environmental impact. The selection of sites for wind-farm often creates serious conservation concerns on biodiversity. Wind turbines have become a serious threat to migratory birds as they collide with the turbine blades in some regions across the globe, while the impact on terrestrial mammals is relatively less explored. In this context, we assessed the responses of birds and mammals to the wind turbines in central Karnataka, India from January 2016 to May 2018 using carcass searches to quantify animal collisions (i.e., birds and bats), fixed radius point count for bird population parameters, and an occupancy framework for assessing the factor that determines the spatial occurrence of terrestrial mammals. The mean annual animal fatality rate per wind turbine was 0.26/year. Species richness, abundance, and unique species of birds were relatively higher in control sites over wind turbine sites. Species and functional compositions of birds in control sites were different from wind turbine sites, explaining the varied patterns of bird assemblages of different feeding guilds. Blackbuck, Chinkara, Golden Jackal, and Jungle Cat were less likely to occupy sites with a high number of wind turbines. The study indicates that certain bird and mammal species avoided wind turbine-dominated sites, affecting their distribution pattern. This is of concern to the management of the forested areas with wind turbines. We raised conservation issues and mitigating measures to overcome the negative effects of wind turbines on animals.

Natural abundance nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance spectral studies on selected donors

The natural abundance 15N-NMR chemical shifts of selected aliphatic amines, 2-substituted pyridine type compounds, bialicyclic tertiary amines have been measured as a function of the nature of the solvent. In the case of cyclic aliphatic amines, like piperidine, morpholine, piperazine, thiomorpholine, the nitrogen is more shielded in concentrated solution compared to that in dilute solution whereas in the hydrogen bonding and protonating solvents there is a prominent deshielding. 2-Substituted pyridines studied can be further divided into four sub groups. The site of hydrogen bonding and protonation in 2-amino, 2-hydroxy and 2-mercapto pyridines have been conclusively proved from the 15N-NMR chemical shifts and the well-known tautomeric forms of the above compounds. Similarly in the case of 2-(2-thienyl)pyridine and 2-(3-thienyl)pyridine, the site of donation has been proved as the nitrogen of the pyridine ring in both the compounds. In a similar manner, the site of hydrogen bonding and protonation in two individual compounds 2-anilinopyridine and 2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazole have also been established. Among the bialicyclic amines, 1,2-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) behaved differently from the other two compounds. In both 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) and 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene (DBN), it was possible to show that N1-nitrogen in both the compounds is the site of donation. The effect of the second donor site on the 15N-NMR chemical shift, the site of donation in the selected compounds and some typical compounds reported in literature have been presented and discussed.