Chesapeake Bay Brook Trout Assessment
Go to the Product(s)
The tool for brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay is built into the Fish Habitat Decision Support Tool website. The website also includes tutorial videos and additional help.
Summary report on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Brook Trout Habitat and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment
Technical report on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Brook Trout Habitat and Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment
Additional Resources
Fish Habitat Decision Support Tool product page.
A similar analysis process was used to conduct an assessment of Estuarine Fish Habitat, which included a pilot study on Winter Flounder. Go to the product page. The project also incorporated analyses on anadromous fish habitat developed by The Nature Conservancy.
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 brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed based on a stakeholder driven process. In addition to assessing habitat conditions, GIS decision support tools were developed and provided to assist with resource planning efforts, at both the regional and site-specific scale.
Project components:
- Develop models to estimate the probability of brook trout occurrence in catchments throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed
- Calculate measures of underlying natural habitat quality and anthropogenic stress
- Assess future climate scenarios and the potential impact to brook trout populations
- Provide decision support tools to facilitate visualization of data and results, prioritize conservation and restoration actions, and estimate brook trout (at fishhabitattool.org)
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: | Freshwater aquatic |
| Conservation Framework: | Biological Planning, Assumption-based Research |
| Threats/Stressors: | Climate Change, Development/Urban Growth, Energy Development, Water quality and supply |
| Conservation Action: | Habitat and natural process restoration, Site/area management, Species management |
