Wind turbine farms impact on pollen transport dispersion patterns

Wind energy has become more and more popular because electricity generation by wind power brings much less environmental impacts than conventional energy generation using coal. Since the land in between turbines is still cultivated for crops and grazing, it is important to know the potential interference of wind turbines with pollen transport and dispersion, or the possible change of patterns established for thousands of years. Pollen transfer from GM crops to non-GM crops might result in the introgression of transgenes into natural populations as maize is mainly wind-pollinated. This study thus reports and assesses a comprehensive method that estimates maize pollen transport in the presence of turbines to ascertain the potential for maize pollen transport. The study on the concentrations of maize pollen transport affected by the wind turbines considers different dispersion parameters given the additional mechanical turbulence introduced by the presence of operating wind turbines. The high mechanical turbulence subsequently reduces downwind concentrations because of the mixing higher and wider into the atmosphere, which dilutes the maize pollen plume with more clean air. Results from a 14-day simulation of maize transport with and without operating wind turbines indicate that each difference of corresponding concentration and flux levels is statistically significant. Overall, the average maize pollen concentration inside the farm in the absence of turbine effects is about 5 times greater than the corresponding maize pollen concentration with turbine effects. Because the high mechanical turbulence carries a large portion of maize pollen away from the farm, only a small portion of maize pollen stays inside the farm due to the high turbulence that lifts maize pollen into higher levels of flow where the wind speed is stronger. In contrast, without turbine effects, a small portion of maize pollen leaves the farm while most of it deposits on the ground much sooner than it would with turbine effects. Therefore, maize pollen concentration and ground level flux in the presence of turbine effects will be greater than they are without turbine effects at a relatively far distance from the farm.