Author ORCID Identifier:

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3946-4420

Date of Graduation

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Biology (MS)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Roberts, Caleb

Committee Member

Wilson, J.D.

Second Committee Member

Mortensen, Jennifer

Keywords

Avian Abundance; Avian Community Occupancy; Avian Species Richness; Landscape context; Solar Photovoltaic Facilities; Vegetation Dviersity

Abstract

The expansion of solar photovoltaic energy infrastructure is transforming landscapes worldwide. Increasingly, facilities are planted with native vegetation, yet how vegetation characteristics and landscape variables shape wildlife communities in solar facilities remains poorly understood. Because avian populations have been in decline and are sensitive to habitat changes, understanding how solar facilities influence avian communities is important. In Chapter 1, we used autonomous recording units, local vegetation measurements, and land use and land cover data to quantify how avian community occupancy is influenced by solar cover in solar facilities and comparable reference sites. We used a Bayesian multi-species occupancy model to assess the relationship between avian community occupancy and these characteristics. We found that while solar photovoltaic facilities were weakly negatively related to avian occupancy, landscape context and local vegetation characteristics had much stronger effects on avian species richness. In Chapter 2, we assessed how avian abundance varied in relation to solar photovoltaic facilities. We conducted point count surveys inside, at the edge, and outside the solar arrays and analyzed the data in N-mixture models. We found that avian abundance was greater outside the solar facilities, with developed land exerting the strongest negative influence on avian abundance. Collectively, our findings indicate that although solar energy infrastructure is associated with reduced avian occupancy and abundance, these effects are overshadowed by the stronger influence of landscape context and local vegetation characteristics. Solar facilities function as components of the broader landscape mosaic, and understanding their ecological role allows for balancing renewable energy expansion with conservation goals.

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