An individual-based instream flow model for coexisting populations of brown and rainbow trout
This report describes an individual-based model for sympatric populations of brown and rainbow trout in a stream habitat. Hatchery rainbow trout are included as a third species. The model provides a tool for predicting flow effects on trout populations by linking the hydraulic component of the Physical Habitat Simulation (PHABSIM) methodology and an individual-based population modeling approach. PHABSIM simulates the spatial distribution of depth and velocity at different flows. The individual-based model simulates the reproduction, foraging, consumption, energetic costs, growth, habitat utilization, movement, and mortality of individual fish, and enables population attributes to be determined from relevant attributes of individual fish. The spatially explicit nature of the model permits evaluation of behavioral responses used by fish to mitigate temporary setbacks in habitat quality. This linked mechanistic modeling approach readily lends itself to the iterative process of making predictions, testing against field data, improving the model, and making more predictions. The model has been applied to a stream segment in the Tule River, California. Physical and biological data from this site are used as input to the model. Calibrating the model to abundance data was relatively easy because values for mortality parameters were not strongly constrained by empirical data. Calibrating the model to observed growth rates and habitat use was more challenging. The primary reason for developing this model has been to provide a new and complementary tool to PHABSIM that can be used in instream-flow assessments.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 230360
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR-106258; TRN: 96:002997
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Mar 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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