U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561, USA.
Environ Monit Assess. 2010 Dec;171(1-4):611-20. doi: 10.1007/s10661-009-1303-0. Epub 2010 Jan 16.
The availability of wetlands and shallow water habitats significantly influences Gulf of Mexico (GOM) penaeid shrimp fishery productivity. However, the GOM region has the highest rate of wetland loss in the USA. Protection and management of these vital GOM habitats are critical to sustainable shrimp fisheries. Brown shrimp (Farfantepenaeus aztecus) are a major component of GOM fisheries. We present an approach for estimating the areal extent of suitable habitat for post-larval and juvenile brown shrimp in Mobile Bay, Alabama, using an existing habitat suitability index model for the northern GOM calculated from probabilistic survey of water quality and sediment data, land cover data, and submerged aquatic vegetation coverages. This estuarine scale approach is intended to support targeted protection and restoration of these habitats. These analyses indicate that approximately 60% of the area of Mobile Bay is categorized as suitable to near optimal for post-larval and juvenile shrimp and 38% of the area is marginally to minimally suitable. We identify potential units within Mobile Bay for targeted restoration to improve habitat suitability.
湿地和浅水栖息地的存在极大地影响了墨西哥湾（GOM）虾类渔业的生产力。然而，GOM 地区是美国湿地流失率最高的地区。保护和管理这些至关重要的 GOM 栖息地对可持续的虾类渔业至关重要。褐虾（Farfantepenaeus aztecus）是 GOM 渔业的主要组成部分。我们提出了一种方法，用于估算阿拉巴马州莫比尔湾幼虾和幼虾的适宜栖息地面积，该方法利用了从水质和沉积物数据、土地覆盖数据和淹没水生植被覆盖的概率调查中计算出的针对 GOM 北部的现有栖息地适宜性指数模型。这种河口尺度的方法旨在支持对这些栖息地的有针对性保护和恢复。这些分析表明，莫比尔湾约有 60%的区域被归类为适合幼虾和幼虾的近最佳区域，38%的区域适宜性较低。我们确定了莫比尔湾内的潜在单位，以进行有针对性的恢复，以提高栖息地的适宜性。
