Green sturgeon distribution in the Pacific Ocean estimated from modeled oceanographic features and migration behavior.

ABSTRACT: The green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), which is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Baja California to the Bering Sea, tends to be highly migratory, moving long distances among estuaries, spawning rivers, and distant coastal regions. Factors that determine the oceanic distribution of green sturgeon are unclear, but broad-scale physical conditions interacting with migration behavior may play an important role. We estimated the distribution of green sturgeon by modeling species-environment relationships using oceanographic and migration behavior covariates with maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) of species geographic distributions. The primary concentration of green sturgeon was estimated from approximately 41-51.5° N latitude in the coastal waters of Washington, Oregon, and Vancouve

SUBMITTER: Huff DD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3448713 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature