VULNERABILITY OF SCOTTISH SEABIRDS TO OFFSHORE WIND

2. MEASURES OF CONSERVATION STATUS

The index developed by Garthe and H◘ppop (2004) included nine factors, of which three represented conservation status of the species and six represented aspects of the hazard that devices represented based on aspects of the ecology of each species. A similar approach has been followed here, but to the extent possible, the conservation status factors have been selected to be specific for Scotland.

In this report, four factors are used as measures of conservation status: status in relation to the Birds Directive, proportion of the biogeographic population that occurs in Scotland, adult survival rate, and UK conservation classification. EIA. requires consideration of population level impacts at a range of spatial scales. The factors used here range from UK level to Scottish level, but do not address site-specific issues or the regional scale, which are beyond the scope of this report.