Modeling and Assessment Efforts for the Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership

The Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership (GPFHP) is part of a larger effort outlined under the National Fish Habitat Partnership (formerly known as the National Fish Habitat Action Plan) to improve and preserve aquatic habitats.  The GPFHP encompasses a large geographic area that includes portions of ten states.  In order to assess the condition of riverine habitats across the entire GPFHP five fish species guilds were selected to be used for the assessments.  These guilds consist of a central/northern headwater species guild, a southern headwater species guild, a turbid river species guild, a stonecat/madtom guild, and a darter guild.  The species guilds based on fish community collections served as the response variable while a combination of landscape-based natural habitat variables and anthropogenic stressors served as the predictor variables in a boosted regression tree (BRT) modeling process.  This presentation will focus on the resulting models, a cumulative anthropogenic stress index (CASI), and a cumulative natural quality index (CNQI) that were developed for each species guild over the GPFHP.  Results of these efforts will include a report tailored to each response variable including maps of restoration and protection priority areas.