Development of a submerged aquatic vegetation model for the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers / by Jonathan D. Midwood.: Fs97-6/3399E-PDF

"Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is an important component in aquatic ecosystems, providing numerous ecosystem services including habitat for fishes throughout their life history. In the St. Clair and Detroit River Areas of Concern (AOC), accurate maps of the distribution and cover of SAV are important for assessing the distribution and condition of fish habitat within these AOC. To support these efforts, this report details the development of random forest models for SAV presence and percent cover. The final SAV presence and percent cover models included all three available environmental parameters: depth, velocity, and effective fetch. A unique dataset indicated that the best SAV presence model had an overall accuracy of over 93% (Kappa >0.85) while the best SAV percent cover model explained the most variance (>75%) and had the lowest root mean square error (19.3). The resulting models are now available to be applied spatially within these AOC and should prove useful in the assessment of the status of the fish and wildlife populations beneficial use impairment"--Abstract, page v.

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