Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Virginia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Virginia Project


Assessing and mapping instream embeddedness for Strategic Habitat Units (SHUs) in Alabama and adjoining states

October 2023 - October 2025


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • USFWS

Strategic Habitat Units (SHUs) were delineated to focus conservation and recovery actions in watersheds with many at-risk aquatic species. We will predict and map mean embeddedness for all gravel-bed stream segments draining four physiographic regions (Highland Rim, Cumberland Plateau, Valley and Ridge, Piedmont) in the SHUs. We will use publicly available, remotely sensed data on channel characteristics to predict embeddedness. Further, in four SHUs – representing a wide range of physiographic conditions and at-risk aquatic species – we will conduct repeated intensive field surveys to measure embeddedness and other channel features, then use those data to refine our predictions. We will work closely with Region 4 FWS biologists to choose field sites and apply the new geospatial layers of embeddedness to conservation discussions and decisions germane to the many at-risk aquatic species in the SHUs. Our analytical approach can be applied to many additional drainages across Region 4.