Through a fish's eye: The status of fish habitats in the United States 2015

Steve Crawford; Gary Whelan; Dana M. Infante; Kristan Blackhart; Wesley M. Daniel; Pam Fuller; Timothy W. Birdsong; Daniel J. Wieferich; Ricardo McClees-Funinan; Susan Stedman; Kyle Herreman; Peter M. Ruhl

Through a fish's eye: The status of fish habitats in the United States 2015

By: Steve Crawford, Gary Whelan, Dana M. Infante, Kristan Blackhart, Wesley M. Daniel, Pam Fuller, Timothy W. Birdsong, Daniel J. Wieferich, Ricardo McClees-Funinan, Susan Stedman, Kyle Herreman, and Peter M. Ruhl

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Abstract

This report updates and revises the 2010 “ Status of Fish Habitats in the United States” that summarized initial results of a comprehensive national assessment of aquatic habitats at an unprecedented scale and level of detail. This 2015 report provides even greater detail and improves our knowledge of the condition of fish habitat in the United States. The 2010 inland streams assessment characterized fish habitat condition using stream fish data from more than 26,000 stream reaches, while the 2015 assessment was based on fish data from more than 39,000 stream reaches nationally. To increase accuracy, the 2015 inland stream assessment incorporated 12 additional human disturbance variables into the fish analysis when compared to the 2010 assessment. Associations between all human disturbance variables summarized in both catchments as well as stream buffers were tested against stream fish metrics to develop assessment scores. Additional variables incorporated into the 2015 assessment and their summary within catchments and buffers allowed for more explicit characterization of the diverse set of disturbances to stream fish habitats occurring across the Nation than what occurred in 2010, and this was made possible due in part to advances in available GIS layers. With the incorporation of these additional disturbances, managers and decision makers can use assessment results to more explicitly identify limits to stream fish habitats. Even with the additional disturbances incorporated into 2015 assessment, results may overestimate fish habitat condition, as localized and regionally-specific disturbances are still not available in some cases.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Report
Publication Subtype	Organization Series
Title	Through a fish's eye: The status of fish habitats in the United States 2015
Year Published	2016
Language	English
Publisher	National Fish Habitat Partnership
Contributing office(s)	Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, National Water Quality Program, Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, and Libraries
Description	HTML Document
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page