Predictive mapping of the biotic condition of conterminous U.S. rivers and streams.

ABSTRACT: Understanding and mapping the spatial variation in stream biological condition could provide an important tool for conservation, assessment, and restoration of stream ecosystems. The USEPA's 2008-2009 National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) summarizes the percentage of stream lengths within the conterminous United States that are in good, fair, or poor biological condition based on a multimetric index of benthic invertebrate assemblages. However, condition is usually summarized at regional or national scales, and these assessments do not provide substantial insight into the spatial distribution of conditions at unsampled locations. We used random forests to model and predict the probable condition of several million kilometers of streams across the conterminous United States based on

SUBMITTER: Hill RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5796808 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature