Robust planning for restoring diadromous fish species in New Zealand's lowland rivers and streams

JR Leathwick; J Elith; D Rowe; K Julian

Journal article

Robust planning for restoring diadromous fish species in New Zealand's lowland rivers and streams

JR Leathwick, J Elith, D Rowe, K Julian

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research | RSNZ PUBLISHING | Published : 2009

DOI: 10.1080/00288330909510032

Abstract

We used statistical models to predict the distributions of 15 native diadromous fish species across New Zealand's river and stream network, and demonstrate their potential use for guiding the restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Models were fitted to an extensive collection of field samples describing the distributions of individual fish species, coupled with a set of environmental predictors chosen primarily for their functional relevance to diadromous fish species. Models were fitted to observations of species occurrence using boosted regression trees (BRT), an advanced regression technique that combines excellent predictive performance with good description of relationships between speci..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Jane Elith Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

J.R. Leathwick's contribution to this research was funded by New Zealand's Foundation for Research, Science and Technology under contract C01X0305 and by the Department of Conservation under the Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System Programme. J. Elith's was funded by ARC grants LP0667891 and DP0772671, and by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis. The models described here were made possible by extensive collections of data describing both fish distributions and environment in New Zealand's rivers and streams-this debt is gratefully acknowledged. A number of colleagues contributed to the ideas presented here including: I. Jowett, R. McDowall, S. Parkyn, J. Quinn, and T. Snelder (NIWA); and L. Chadderton, B. David, and T. Stephens (Department of Conservation). B. David provided useful comments on an initial draft.