Predictive Modeling of Juvenile Smalltooth Sawfish Habitats: Challenges and Opportunities for Conservation.

ABSTRACT: Effective conservation of rare species necessitates the identification of critical habitats and their specific features that influence species occurrence. This study focused on smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata), a critically endangered elasmobranch, to explore how predictive spatial modeling can enhance conservation efforts. By leveraging long-term occurrence and relative abundance data from scientific gillnet surveys, along with in situ environmental data, we used boosted regression trees (BRT) to pinpoint key habitat features essential for juvenile sawfish. Our analysis revealed strong correlations between sawfish presence and environmental variables, with a preferential selection of very shallow, warm, and saline waters fringed with mangroves, particularly those with high pn

SUBMITTER: Kroetz AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11747141 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature