ECOWind-ACCELERATE: accelerated seabed mobility around offshore windfarms.

To identify opportunities for wider conservation with stackable benefits around offshore windfarms (OWF), we need to quantify existing changes and predict future changes to the marine environment from OWF expansion, with trophic interactions that start at the seabed. We are therefore building a calibrated and validated high-resolution local area coupled flow-sediment transport model to quantify the impact of OWF modified flows on seabed mobility (sediment transport, seabed composition and morphology). This will then be combined with impacts on the seabed from climate change. Here we focus on using various sizes of OWF and representing realistic seabed sediment composition, and preliminary results from flume laboratory experiments and TELEMAC 3D modelling will be presented at the MARID conference. This work is part of the new ECOWind-ACCELERATE project, where the team will quantify the impact of the seabed modifications on seabed habitats and the knock-on consequences
for epi-benthic fish distribution and deep-diving seabirds.