Abstract
Florida is developing a database and conducting modeling to identify and spatially delineate fish habitats. The Florida Estuarine Living Marine Resources System consists of a relational database that summarizes bibliographic information on the habitat requirements of fish and invertebrates important to fisheries. We are using Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) modeling to estimate the geographic distributions of species by life stages. We use water-column and benthic habitat data from each estuary to create gridded environmental maps. Suitability indices of relative abundance across environmental gradients are derived from fisheries independent monitoring data. A geographic information system (GIS) is used to run the HSI model to produce predicted distribution maps. Observed and expected data from Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor are being used to test the reliability of the model. Suitability indices transferred from one estuary to another may provide a means to predict geographic distributions and abundance of species by life stages in estuaries not being surveyed. These methods may be useful to fishery management councils seeking to determine essential fish habitat under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
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