You are here:
DETECTING PERSISTENT CHANGE IN THE HABITAT OF SALMON-BEARING STREAMS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Citation:
Larsen, D P., P R. Kaufmann, T. M. Kincaid, AND N. S. Urquhart. DETECTING PERSISTENT CHANGE IN THE HABITAT OF SALMON-BEARING STREAMS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada, 61:283-91, (2004).
Description:
In the northwestern United States, there is considerable interest in the recovery of salmon populations listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. A critical component of any salmon recovery effort is the improvement of stream habitat that supports various life stages. Two factors in concert control our ability to detect consistent change in conditions that could result from significant expenditures on habitat improvement: the magnitude of spatial and temporal variation and the design of the monitoring network. We summarize the important components of variation that affect trend detection and explain how well-designed networks of 50 sites monitored consistently over years can detect underlying changes of 1-2% per year in a variety of key habitat characteristics within 15-20 years, if such trends are present.