Shifting from Theory to Practice: Analyzing the Efficacy of Local and Broad Scale Connectivity Metrics

Aquatic connectivity is an ecological process that is impacted by anthropogenic activity and has been implicated in the decline of many aquatic species. This has lead to the development of numerous theoretical applications to evaluate connectivity in river systems and optimize barrier restoration. Such tools are attractive as they can be less dependent on expensive ecological data collection. Unfortunately, there has been little validation of the assumed relationships between connectivity approaches and the response of biota. Using in situ fish movements and historical catch data, we evaluated the biological relevance of local and broad scale measures of connectivity in different stream systems in Canada. Our results provide valuable insight into the utility of these approaches and some potential limitations for management applications.