Faculty Office Hour: Marine Birds and Wind Farms

Marine Birds and Wind Farms

While politicians tussle over whales, two URI professors look to birds—including piping plovers, roseate terns, and black scoters—to understand the impact of offshore wind farms on marine life. Using sophisticated modeling techniques and even miniature radio transmitters, Professors Scott McWilliams and Peter Paton are analyzing flight behavior and bird distribution to assess the impact of offshore wind farms on wildlife.

Cost: Complimentary

Register by: Wednesday, November 13, 2024

About the Faculty Presenters

Scott R. McWilliams, Ph.D.
Professor, Natural Resources Science
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Scott McWilliams is a professor of wildlife ecology and physiology at URI. He studies the ecology and behavior and physiology of wild vertebrates, mostly waterfowl, upland gamebirds, and neotropical migrating songbirds. Current research topics include habitat use, diet, and nutrition of arctic-nesting geese, sea ducks, and migratory songbirds; forest management to support healthy bird populations; exercise physiology of migratory birds; effects of climate change on migratory birds; how offshore wind farms affect migratory sea ducks and seabirds. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics. He is a Certified Wildlife Biologist, a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and has provided technical consultant support for both the quantitative assessment of offshore renewable energy facility impacts on migratory birds as well as the avian injury assessment for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He received a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology from the University of California, Davis and an M.S. in animal ecology from Iowa State University and conducted postdoctoral training in wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin.

Peter Paton, Ph.D.
Professor, Natural Resources Science
College of the Environment and Life Sciences
Peter Paton is a professor of wildlife ecology at URI. He worked as a federal wildlife biologist (USFWS, USFS) and contract biologist for 10 years before joining the URI faculty. He studies the conservation biology of wild vertebrates with an emphasis on threatened and endangered species, and he is currently leading the RI Bird Atlas project. Recently, he has worked with Dr. Jim Miller and colleagues at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography and Deepwater Wind to understand fine-scale movements of marine birds near the Block Island Wind Farm. He was the principal investigator, with Dr. Scott McWilliams, on avian survey efforts for the RI Ocean SAMP and worked with three graduate students to model the distribution of sea ducks in Rhode Island Sound in relationship to offshore wind energy developments. For five years, he has been working with colleagues at UMass and USFWS to assess movements of endangered marine birds through wind energy areas. He has authored over 75 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics. He received a Ph.D. in wildlife biology from Utah State University and an M.S. in wildlife biology from Colorado State University.

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