Fish habitat of the Toronto waterfront: Community analysis and validation of the habitat alteration assessment tool.

摘要

In 1995, Minns and co-workers presented the outline of a quantitative, scientifically defensible method of assessing productivity (Minns et al. 1995) that led to the later creation of the Habitat Alteration Assessment Tool (HAAT) software.; The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the HAAT provides an acceptable method for assessing fish habitat alterations using the Toronto waterfront as a test case. An extensive fish community database assembled by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) also provided the opportunity for a secondary analysis, to determine whether significant changes had occurred as a result of habitat alterations on the Toronto waterfront over the past decade. In addition to the available historical fish community data, additional fish and environmental data were collected in Summer 2002, Fall 2002, Spring 2003, and Summer 2003 and waterfront physical habitat characteristics were mapped.; Simpson's reciprocal diversity index and the modified Hill's ratio evenness analyses of the historical community data produced only two significant temporal changes, neither of which were explained by any variables included in this study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)