Abstract
South-east Queensland (Australia) streams were described by 21 local habitat variables that were chosen because of their potential association with fish distribution. An Assessment by a Nearest Neighbour Analysis (ANNA) model used large-scale variables that are robust to human influence to predict what the values of each of the 21 local habitat variables at each site would be without modification from human activity. The ANNA model used elevation, stream order, distance from source and longitude to predict the local habitat variables; other candidate predictor variables (mean rainfall, latitude and catchment area) were not found to be useful. The ANNA model was able to predict five of the 21 local habitat variables (average width, sand (%), cobble (%), rocks (%) and large woody debris) with an R 2 of at least 0.2. The observed values of these five local habitat variables were used to model the distributions of individual fish species. The species distribution models were developed using logistic regression based on a subset of the data (some of the data were withheld for model validation) and a forward stepwise model selection procedure. There was no difference in predictive performance of fish distribution models for model predictions based on observed values and model predictions based on ANNA predicted values of local habitat variables in the withheld data (p-value = 0.85). Therefore, it is possible to predict the suitability of sites as habitat for given fish species using estimated (estimates based on large-scale variables) natural values of local habitat variables.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Armitage P. D., Gunn R. J. M., F. M. T., Wright J. F. and Moss D. (1987). The use of prediction to assess macroinvertebrate response to river regulation. Hydrobiologia 144: 25–32
Atkinson, B. & D. Mahoney, 2001. S-Plus ROC functions. In Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Belliard J., Boet P. and Tales E. (1997). Regional and longitudinal patterns of fish community structure in the Seine River basin, France. Environmental Biology of Fishes 50: 133–147
Bond N. R. and Lake P. S. (2003). Characterizing fish-habitat associations in streams as the first step in ecological restoration. Austral Ecology 28: 611–621
Centor R. M. and Schartz J. S. (1985). An evaluation of methods for estimating the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Medical Decision Making 5: 149–156
Davies N. M., Norris R. H. and Thoms M. C. (2000). Prediction and assessment of local stream habitat features using large-scale catchment characteristics. Freshwater Biology 45: 343–369
(1992). Hierarchies and spatial scale in process geomorphology: A review. Geomorphology 4: 303–318
DeLong E. R., DeLong D. M. and Clarke-Pearson D. L. (1988). Comparing the areas under two or more correlated receiver operating characteristic curves: A nonparametric approach. Biometrics 44: 837–845
Draper N. R. and Smith H. (1966). Applied Regression Analysis. John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York
Efron B. and Tibshirani R. J. (1993). An Introduction to the Bootstrap. Chapman and Hall, New York
Fielding A. H. and Bell J. F. (1997). A review of methods for the assessment of prediction errors in conservation presence/absence models. Environmental Conservation 24: 38–49
Franklin J. (1998). Predicting the distribution of shrub in southern California from climate and terrain-derived variables. Journal of Vegetation Science 9: 733–748
Frissell C. A., Liss W. J., Warren C. E. and Hurley M. D. (1986). A hierarchical framework for stream habitat classification: Viewing streams in a watershed context. Environmental Manangement 10(2): 199–214
Gafny S., Goren M. and Gasith A. (2000). Habitat condition and fish assemblage structure in a coastal mediterranean stream (Yarqon, Israel) receiving domestic effluent. Hydrobiologia 422: 319–330
Gorman O. T. and Karr J. R. (1978). Habitat structure and stream fish communities. Ecology 59: 507–515
Green D. and Swets J. A. (1966). Signal Detection Theory and Psychophysics. John Wiley and Sons, New York
Hall L. W., Morgan R. P., Perry E. S. and Waltz A. (2002). Development of a provisional physical habitat index for Maryland freshwater streams. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 77: 265–291
Hanley J. A. and McNeil B. J. (1982). The meaning and use of the area under receiver operating characteristic curve. Radiology 143: 29–36
Hanley J. A. and McNeil B. J. (1983). A method for comparing the areas under receiver operating characteristic curves derived from the same cases. Radiology 148: 839–843
Harper D. and Everard M. (1998). Why should the habitat-level approach underpin holistic river survey and management?. Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 8: 395–413
Hosmer D. W. and Lemeshow S. (1989). Applied Logistic Regression. John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane
Imhof J. G., Fitzgibbon J. and Annable W. K. (1996). A hierarchical evaluation system for characterizing watershed ecosystems for fish habitat. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53: 312–326
James F. C. and McCulloch C. E. (1990). Multivariate analysis in ecology and systematics: Panaceae or pandora’s box. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 21: 129–166
Jeffers J. N. R. (1998). Characterization of river habitats and prediction of habitat features using ordination techniques. Aquatic Conservation-Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 8: 529–540
Joy M. K. and Death R. G. (2002). Predictive modelling of freshwater fish as a biomonitoring tool in New Zealand. Freshwater Biology 47: 2261–2275
Kauffman J. B., Beschta R. L., Otting N. and Lytjen D. (1997). An ecological perspective of riparian and stream restoration in the western United States. Fisheries 22: 12–24
Kennard, M. J., B. J. Pusey, A. H. Arthington & S. J. Mackay, 2006. Development and application of a predictive model of freshwater fish assemblage composition to evaluate river health in eastern Australia. Hydrobiologia. This Volume
Knighton D. (1984). Fluvial Forms and Processes. Edward Arnold, London, UK
Linke S., Norris R., Faith D. P. and Stockwell D. (2005). ANNA: A new prediction method for bioassessment programs. Freshwater Biology 50: 147–158
Maddock I. (1999). The importance of physical habitat assessment for evaluating river health. Freshwater Biology 41: 373–391
McCullagh P. and Nelder J. A. (1989). Generalized Linear Models. Chapman and Hall, London, New York
Merrick J. R. and Schmida G. E. (1984). Australian Freshwater Fishes: Biology and Management. Griffin Press Ltd, Netley, South Australia
Olden J. D. and Jackson D. A. (2002). A comparison of statistical approaches for modelling fish species distributions. Freshwater Biology 47: 1976–1995
Pearce J. and Ferrier S. (2000). An evaluation of alternative algorithms for fitting species distribution models using logistic regression models. Ecological Modelling 128: 127–147
Poff N. L. (1997). Landscape filters and species traits: Towards mechanistic understanding and prediction in stream ecology. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 16: 391–409
Poff N. L. and Allan J. D. (1995). Functional-Organization of Stream Fish Assemblages in Relation to Hydrological Variability. Ecology 76: 606–627
Poff N. L. and Ward J. V. (1990). The physical habitat template of lotic systems: Recovery in the context of historical pattern of spatio-temporal heterogeneity. Environmental Management 14: 629–645
Pusey B. J. and Kennard M. J. (1996). Species richness and geographical variation in assemblage structure of the freshwater fish fauna of the Wet Tropics region of northern Queensland. Marine and Freshwater Research 47: 563–573
Pusey B. J., Kennard M. J. and Arthington A. H. (2004). Freshwater Fishes of North-eastern Australia. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood
Pusey B. J., Kennard M. J., Arthur J. M. and Arthington A. H. (1998). Quantitative sampling of stream fish assemblages: Single- versus multiple pass electrofishing. Australian Journal of Ecology 23: 365–374
Richards C., Haro R. J., Johnson B. L. and Host G. E. (1997). Catchment and reach-scale properties as indicators of macroinvertebrate species traits. Freshwater Biology 37: 219–230
Richards C., Johnson L. B. and Host G. E. (1996). Landscape-scale influences on stream habitats and biota. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53(Suppl. 1): 295–311
Schlosser I. J. (1995). Critical landscape attributes that influence fish population dynamics in headwater streams. Hydrobiologia 303: 71–81
Schlosser I. J. and Angermeier P. L. (1995). Spatial variation in demographic processes of lotic fishes: Conceptual models, empirical evidence and implications for conservation. American Fisheries Society Symposium 17: 392–401
Schumm S. A. and Lichty R. W. (1965). Time, space and causality in geomorphology. American Journal of Science 263: 110–119
Swets J. A. and Pickett R. M. (1982). Evaluation of Diagnostic Systems. Academic Press, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mugodo, J., Kennard, M., Liston, P. et al. Local stream habitat variables predicted from catchment scale characteristics are useful for predicting fish distribution. Hydrobiologia 572, 59–70 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-006-0252-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-006-0252-7