Impacts of Watershed Fragmentation and Restoration on Fish Habitat, Migration and Production in Great Lakes Tributaries
University of Michigan
This team developed a regression model of fishes to predict, from habitat features, the biomass and recruitment of anadromous fish species (fishes that migrate to freshwater to spawn). In this model, fish distributions and biomass is a function of proximity to dams. Substrate data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) helped the team predict changes in habitat features in response to altered flows caused by dam removal.
The team tested and calibrated the habitat features model on Michigan rivers. This work allows users to quantify the amount of habitat and production that can be lost from fragmentation or gained through restoration.
- Flow Regimes