Developing a user-friendly modelling tool to automate production of bioenergetic-based Habitat Suitability Curves for instream flow assessments

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Streams and rivers provide important opportunities for recreational angling, as well as critical juvenile rearing habitat for the marine salmon fishery that is a major economic driver in British Columbia and elsewhere. However, society exerts strong competing demands for water through hydro power, irrigation, manufacturing, and domestic water supplies; consequently, sound science is needed to predict the consequences of water use and reduced flows on fish production and recreational fisheries. ****This project will develop a habitat modelling tool to more accurately predict the effects of changing water depth and velocity on juvenile salmon and trout, to decrease uncertainty around the effects of flow reduction on fish production. The modelling tool will predict the energetic consequences of habitat use for fish in terms of the balance between energy intake and energy expenditures (swimming costs), and use this information to develop biological models that more accurately capture the effects of changing flow on fish habitat. Model predictions will be tested based on observed habitat use by juvenile salmon and trout in selected streams. The model will be freely available to resource managers and biologists, and should improve the quality of stream flow management in Canada and elsewhere, in support of maintaining fish production and angling opportunities. **