Fish Habitat Decision Support Tool
Go to the Product(s)
Fish Habitat Decision Support Tool website
Additional Resources
Chesapeake Bay Brook Trout Assessment: Summary Report, Technical Report
Estuarine Fish Habitat Assessment: A General Framework and Winter Flounder Pilot Studies
Technical description
Fishery and aquatic scientists often assess habitats to understand the distribution, status, threats, and relative abundance of aquatic resources. Due to the spatial nature of habitats and associated temporal changes, using traditional analytical methods is often difficult. This project developed habitat assessment models and outputs for the North Atlantic LCC region that were developed based on a stakeholder driven process. In addition to assessing habitat conditions, GIS decision support tools were developed to assist with resource planning efforts, at both the regional and site-specific scale.
Project components:
- Habitat models for brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, based on both current conditions and future climate change scenarios, have been completed. A summary report and technical report for brook trout also have been completed
- A framework for estuarine fish habitat assessment, including winter flounder case studies for Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound.
- Web-based decision support tool for brook trout in Chesapeake Bay with three modules.
The three modules include:
- Visualization tool to measure natural and human factors that influence brook trout occurrence at multiple scales
- User-defined ranking criteria for identifying priority areas
- Scenario-analysis modeling the context of future climate regimes
Case Studies and News Stories
"Science in the Stream" - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region Conserving the Nature of the Northeast blog
"Finding sweet spots for brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed" - North Atlantic LCC news
Project Contact(s):
Todd Petty, Professor of Aquatic Science at West Virginia University
LCC Staff Contact(s):
Scott Schwenk, Science Coordinator
PROJECT PAGE:
| Resource Type: | Fish |
|---|---|
| Conservation Targets: | Coastal and Marine, Freshwater aquatic |
| Conservation Framework: | Biological Planning, Assumption-based Research |
| Threats/Stressors: | Climate Change, Development/Urban Growth, Energy Development, Invasives, Diseases, Pathogens, Sea-level rise and storm impacts, Water quality and supply |
| Conservation Action: | Habitat and natural process restoration, Site/area management, Species management |
