On the Current Cover of the Journal of Great Lakes Research

Volume 37, Number 4

The large, flat rocks scattered along the bottom of this stretch of Paine Creek (a tributary of the Grand River, Ohio, Lake Erie Basin) provide ideal spawning substrate for such species as steelhead and white suckers. Knowing the quality, quantity, and configuration of suitable habitat within a stream can inform us about population dynamics such as number of individuals, recruitment potential, and predation rates. It is, however, very time-, labor-, and cost-intensive to assess the amount of suitable habitat in a stream using traditional methods. Typically, repeated measures of channel slope and bankfull width are paired with numerous pebble counts to quantify the characteristics of a stream, but logistically these assessments can only be conducted over small areas. In this issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, Gorman et al. demonstrate how substrate size can be estimated from the area of the watershed, the channel slope, and the width of a stream at bankfull stage. Results from this work also indicate that these variables can either be acquired using traditional field techniques or obtained from digital maps. The digital mapping approach is beneficial compared to traditional methods because it allows researchers and managers to calculate the amount and layout of suitable habitat for a given species over much broader areas in a more efficient manner.

Photo credit: Alexander M. Ford, Fairport Fish Station, Ohio Department of Natural Resources.