Abstract
Preference (or suitability) curves are an integral part of the Physical HABitat SIMulation (PHABSIM) component of the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM); a technique widely employed in fish and fisheries ecology studies for modelling and predicting fish microhabitat use. In the present study, a set of 24 intrinsically linear equations of different type, degree and number of parameters were evaluated for their goodness of fit (r2) by fitting to a large array of velocity preference profiles resulting from experimental observations of 0+ juvenile barbel Barbus barbus in an artificial channel under different combinations of depth, discharge and time of day. The present results would support the routine and widespread use of standard polynomials for modelling habitat preference curves. The advantages of non-parametric over parametric fitting are also discussed.
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