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

溪流和河流为休闲垂钓提供了重要的机会，也为海洋鲑鱼渔业提供了重要的幼鱼饲养栖息地，海洋鲑鱼渔业是不列颠哥伦比亚省和其他地方的主要经济驱动力。然而，社会通过水力发电，灌溉，制造业和家庭供水对水产生了强烈的竞争需求;因此，需要可靠的科学来预测水的使用和减少对鱼类生产和休闲渔业的影响。该项目将开发一个生境建模工具，以更准确地预测水深和流速变化对幼鲑鱼和鳟鱼的影响，减少流量减少对鱼类生产影响的不确定性。该建模工具将从能量摄入和能量支出（游泳成本）之间的平衡方面预测鱼类栖息地使用的能量后果，并利用这一信息开发生物模型，更准确地捕捉流量变化对鱼类栖息地的影响。模型预测将进行测试的基础上观察到的栖息地使用的幼鲑鱼和鳟鱼在选定的流。该模型将免费提供给资源管理者和生物学家，并应提高加拿大和其他地方的溪流管理质量，以支持维持鱼类产量和钓鱼机会。

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.