9512

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9512
• Author: Anderson, R. and G. Stewart.
• Title: Riverine Fish Flow Investigations Federal Aid Project f-289-R6.
• USFW Year: 2003.
• USFW - Doc Type: Fort Collins.
• Copyright Material: NO

Table 4. Depth and velocity criteria used to define meso-habitat types.
Habitat T es De th Veloci
m m/s
1 Wetted- ool 0.01 - 0.2 < 0.15
2 Shoal- ool 0.2 - 0.5 < 0.15
3 Shallow- ool 0.5-1,0 <O.1S
4 Medi- 1 1.0 - 2.0 < 0.15
S Dee - ool > 2.0 < 0.15
6 Wetted-run .O1 - 0.2 O.1S - .6
~ Shoal-run 0.2 - 0.5 0.1 S - .6
8 Shallow-run 0.5 to 1.0 0.1 S - .6
9 Medi-run 1.0 to 2.0 0.1 S - .6
10 Dee -run > 2.0 0.1 S - .6
11 Shallow-riffle < 0.2 0.6 - 1.5
12 Riffle 0.2 to 0.5 0.6 - 1.5
13 Dee -riffle 0.5 to 1.0 0.6 - 1.5
14 Ve -de -riffle > 1.0 0.6 - 1.5
15 Shallow-ra id < 0.5 > 1.5 '
16 Dee -ra id > 0.5 > 1.S
The meso-habitat suitability analyses used the 2-D hydraulic modeling simulation .
runs to determine physical attribute metrics for each polygon. This included surface area,
mean depth, mean velocity, maximum depth and maximum velocity. Species density
and biomass data were calculated based on the percent of fish captured in each sub-reach
times the total-reach estimate. Polygons with zero biomass were considered unusable
habitat. Polygons that supported high biomass indicated higher habitat quality. Biomass
was determined for the flannelmouth sucker, bluehead sucker and roundtail chub over 20
cm in length.
The polygon data was used to create four functional meso-habitat types for
bluehead and flannelmouth suckers. The biomass and mean depth, and mean velocity
data was imported into Sigma Plot and then smoothed using a running median function.
The result was a regular matrix showing estimated polygon biomass as a function of
mean depth and mean velocity. The biomass data were graphed using Sigma Plot
software at the scale of 0.1 m, which was used for both axes. For example, bluehead
sucker had low biomass in the cell with a depth of 0.6 m and 0.3 m/s, but higher biomass
for the cell with 0,6 depth and 0.7 m/s. The data was validated by regression analysis of
projected biomass versus observed biomass.
Four levels of suitability were determined from the polygon biomass. Polygons
with zero biomass were called Unusable habitat. Unsuitable, Marginal and Optimal were
the other meso-habitat types. Each contained roughly about one-third of the total sample
size. The lower third or Unsuitable polygons represented about 15% of the total biomass.
Marginal represented about 25% Optimal contained about 60% of the total biomass of the
total electro-fishing station.
32