TY - JOUR
T1 - A European eel (Anguilla anguilla) case study using structured elicitation to estimate instream infrastructure passability for freshwater fishes
AU - Thomas, Merryn J.
AU - Pawar, Sayali K.
AU - Januchowski-Hartley, Stephanie R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the expert participants for making this research possible, Fraser Januchowski‐Hartley for assistance with Figure 3 , and Peter Jones and Emma Washburn for piloting the survey. This study is supported by the Welsh European Funding Office and European Regional Development Fund Project 80761‐SU‐140 (West).
Funding Information:
European Regional Development Fund, Grant/Award Number: 80761‐SU‐140 Funding information
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Conservation efforts are hampered by limited understanding about how different types of instream infrastructure impact migration patterns and fish survival. We used a rapid, fully online IDEA protocol to elicit expert judgments for the passability of seven different in-stream infrastructures to elver European eels (Anguilla anguilla) in Great Britain. Nine experts provided judgments via our online survey, followed by a second elicitation via email for reflection and adjustment of initial estimates. We found that on average, bridges were judged the most passable (95% passability), followed by fords, nonperched culverts, weirs, sluices, dams, and perched culverts (7%). Results showed a high degree of agreement about how passable bridges and perched culverts are for elver eels, but less certainty about other infrastructure. Thirty-four distinct factors were identified that experts believed influence infrastructure passability for elver eels, including: the structure itself, hydraulics, elver characteristics, obstructions (e.g., debris accumulation), and vegetation (e.g., to aid climbing). We discuss how our rapid, online-only variation on the IDEA protocol compares with the more traditional protocol, and how the expert estimates generated in this study can be used in future scenario building and connectivity modeling, with a view to improving conservation to support species persistence.
AB - Conservation efforts are hampered by limited understanding about how different types of instream infrastructure impact migration patterns and fish survival. We used a rapid, fully online IDEA protocol to elicit expert judgments for the passability of seven different in-stream infrastructures to elver European eels (Anguilla anguilla) in Great Britain. Nine experts provided judgments via our online survey, followed by a second elicitation via email for reflection and adjustment of initial estimates. We found that on average, bridges were judged the most passable (95% passability), followed by fords, nonperched culverts, weirs, sluices, dams, and perched culverts (7%). Results showed a high degree of agreement about how passable bridges and perched culverts are for elver eels, but less certainty about other infrastructure. Thirty-four distinct factors were identified that experts believed influence infrastructure passability for elver eels, including: the structure itself, hydraulics, elver characteristics, obstructions (e.g., debris accumulation), and vegetation (e.g., to aid climbing). We discuss how our rapid, online-only variation on the IDEA protocol compares with the more traditional protocol, and how the expert estimates generated in this study can be used in future scenario building and connectivity modeling, with a view to improving conservation to support species persistence.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122081038&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/csp2.485
DO - 10.1111/csp2.485
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122081038
VL - 3
JO - Conservation Science and Practice
JF - Conservation Science and Practice
IS - 9
M1 - e485
ER -