The underwater structures of offshore wind farms along the Taiwan Strait have become “marine ranches,” creating highly diversified reef ecosystems, a research team from National Taiwan Ocean University’s Institute of Marine Biology found.
Although offshore wind power construction used to be considered harmful to marine ecosystems, the team yesterday said it found that the submerged parts of wind turbines attract fish dwelling in different ocean layers.
Led by institute honorary chair professor Shao Kwang-tsao (邵廣昭) and professor Shao Yi-ta (邵奕達), the team studied the underwater structures of wind farms off Miaoli and Changhua counties through scuba diving and pole-and-line surveys.
Photo courtesy of Lee Chun-ming via National Taiwan Ocean University
Vertical structures of turbine foundations extend from the surface to the bottom of the ocean, providing hard substrate surfaces, while also functioning as upright artificial reefs that can attract fish of the surface, middle and bottom layers of the ocean, the team found.
The fish species observed around the vertical structures significantly outnumbered those inhabiting traditional reefs, the study showed.
More than 80 reef-associated fishes were identified around the wind farms, none of which had been recorded in the surrounding sandy areas of the waters, it showed.
Photo courtesy of Lee Chun-ming via National Taiwan Ocean University
The reef ecosystems created by the turbines also harmoniously coexisted with the existing soft bottom ecosystems and did not affect the number or proportions of bottom-dwelling fish, it showed.
Within a few months following the completion of turbine construction, invertebrates such as barnacles, sponges or corals attach themselves to the surface of a turbine’s underwater structure, creating habitats for shrimp, crabs, bristle worms, isopods or gastropods, the research showed.
Such habitats also attracted high-value species such as groupers, snappers, chicken grunts or lobsters to search for food or lay eggs, achieving sustained cultivation of resources, it showed.
Photo: CNA
Although offshore wind farms were not built for conservation, they maintain biodiversity, the research team said, adding that more comprehensive fishery management rules should be established to promote offshore wind farms’ role in energy transition and marine conservation.
In other news, a National Central University (NCU) research team yesterday said it developed a muon detector and used muon radiography to identify the internal density structure of a volcano in Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park, marking the beginning of the technique’s applications in Taiwan.
Led by NCU physics professor Kuo Chia-ming (郭家銘) and Earth sciences professor Chen Chien-chih (陳建志) in collaboration with Academia Sinica’s Institute of Physics, the research project was the first systemic development of muon radiography in Taiwan, with the goal of collecting data on underground structures.
Muons are fundamental particles produced from the interaction of cosmic rays and the atmosphere, which are highly penetrative and can travel through rocks as thick as hundreds of meters, Kuo said.
The research team developed a small, energy-efficient and highly stable muon sensor system that is suitable for extended use in the field, he said.
It markedly reduced the barriers for setting up and maintaining equipment, which is the key to applying the technique in Taiwan, he said.
The newly developed muon detector was used to explore the geological structure from above a desilting tunnel of Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan last year, which was the first field experiment of muon exploration in Taiwan, Kuo said.
The research team also set up a station on Yangmingshan (陽明山) later last year, seeking to construct the image of a volcano’s internal density structure using muon radiography to deepen understanding of the volcanic hydrothermal system and its potential activities, he said.
The project would be expanded to include four sets of muon detector arrays to observe volcanic structures and activities from diverse directions, with the goal of shifting to real-time monitoring, he added.
Taiwan, with complex geological structures and steep terrain, faces a multitude of challenges from volcanos, earthquakes and landslides, as well as geothermal and underground construction, making it an ideal field for testing muon radiography, Chen said.
The technique is expected to be applied to other geothermal developments, underground carbon dioxide storage and the management of highly radioactive nuclear waste, which could bolster Taiwan’s net zero transition, he said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS