Analyse comparative de modèles de la qualité des habitats basés sur la densité instantanée et cumulative de poissons
Aquatic ecosystems contain approximately 25% of the global biodiversity and are among the most affected by human activity. This may be caused by the position of “receivers” rivers, lakes and oceans have in their watershed. Aquatic species, specially in freshwater, are thus at high risk of being affected by human activity. Assuring the survival of these species may include protecting and restoring their habitats. Habitat quality models (HQM) can be used to determine which habitats to protect and how to restore damaged habitats. HQM are relationships between habitat quality indices (HQI, e.g., density) and environmental conditions prevailing in those habitats. However, how well an HQM performs depends on the chosen HQI it is computed with. For this research, we compared HQM based on two HQI estimated for fish in a river : 1) instantaneous density, sampled by transect snorkeling survey and 2) cumulative density, sampled by fixed stereo-video recording. Analyses of twelve HQM show that, contrary to our hypothesis, HQM based on instantaneous density had higher explanatory capacities. However, environmental conditions selected by both types of HQM to explain a species’ distribution were different. This may in part be explained by inherent differences of the sampling methods (e.g., spatial scale). We conclude that instantaneous density as HQI produces HQM of higher explanatory capacities, yet both HQI may provide complementary information on the characteristics of habitats to protect and restore.
video camera snorkeling habitat quality model habitat quality indices instantaneous density cumulative density fish aquatic ecosystem