Mechanisms underlying the impacts of cropland wind farms on local carbon and water fluxes

Abstract In recent years, the rapid expansion of the wind power industry has increased awareness of its ecological impacts. A thorough understanding of these impacts is essential for scientifically planning wind farms (WFs) in the future. While previous studies have evaluated the influences of WFs on vegetation and climate indicators, analyses of the underlying mechanisms remain limited. Here, we focused on 169 cropland WFs in eastern China to investigate the impacts of this prevalent type of WF. Specifically, we developed an analytical framework that first evaluated the impacts of cropland WFs on ecological and environmental factors. Ridge regression was then applied to identify differences in the environmental variables inside and outside the WFs that affect gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET). Finally, structural equation modeling was used to delineate the pathways by which WFs influence GPP and ET. The results show that WFs reduce daytime land surface temperature by 0.186 °C, significantly increase soil moisture (0.003 m 3 m −3 ), and decrease the vapor pressure deficit by 0.095 hPa. These environmental changes subsequently contributed to a significant rise in GPP (25.181 gC m −2 ) and ET (3.785 mm). By elucidating the complex ecological impacts of WFs from a pathway perspective, this study reveals the interactions among factors influenced by the local scale temperature effects of WFs, providing a deeper understanding of their ecological impacts and valuable insights for future research.