Si et al, (2025) Offshore wind farms can enhance the structural composition and functional dynamics of coastal waters Global Ecology and Conservation
This study explores how offshore wind farms can change coastal ecosystems, focusing on their effects on water structure, nutrients and marine life. The authors found that wind farm foundations can act as artificial reef structures, increasing habitat complexity and supporting higher biological activity, in surrounding waters. Changes in water mixing around turbines were shown to influence plankton communities and nutrient dynamics, which can have knock-on effects throughout the food web. Wind farm foundations often promote colonisation by benthic organisms, leading to a shift from pelagic-dominated to more benthic-dominated systems.
(EBFA note : This means a need for actual fisheries to change because of the ecosystem impact wind farms implicate. Also, benthic colonisation does not automatically translate into new fishing opportunities, since many organisms are non-commercial ones)
