Identification of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush spawning habitat in northern Lake Huron using high-resolution satellite imagery

Journal of Great Lakes Research
By: , and 

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Abstract

The availability and quality of spawning habitat may limit lake trout recovery in the Great Lakes, but little is known about the location and characteristics of current spawning habitats. Current methods used to identify lake trout spawning locations are time- and labor-intensive and spatially limited. Due to the observation that some lake trout spawning sites are relatively clean of overlaying algae compared to areas not used for spawning, we suspected that spawning sites could be identified using satellite imagery. Satellite imagery collected just before and after the spawning season in 2013 was used to assess whether lake trout spawning habitat could be identified based on its spectral characteristics. Results indicated that Pléiades high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery can be successfully used to estimate algal coverage of substrates and temporal changes in algal coverage, and that models developed from processed imagery can be used to identify potential lake trout spawning sites based on comparison of sites where lake trout eggs were and were not observed after spawning. Satellite imagery is a potential new tool for identifying lake trout spawning habitat at large scales in shallow nearshore areas of the Great Lakes.

Study Area

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Identification of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush spawning habitat in northern Lake Huron using high-resolution satellite imagery
Series title Journal of Great Lakes Research
DOI 10.1016/j.jglr.2015.11.011
Volume 42
Issue 1
Year Published 2016
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Contributing office(s) Great Lakes Science Center
Description 9 p.
First page 127
Last page 135
Country United States
Other Geospatial Lake Huron
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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