A spatially explicit migration model for pike

Abstract

Pike (Esox lucius L.) populations have been suffering from habitat degradation and the increasing number of restoration programs had only limited success. In order to set up more effective restoration programmes in the future, it is important to gain insight into the spatio-temporal dynamics of pike. Because no efforts have been spent to develop a spatially explicit model that enables a better understanding of the observed patterns of movement, and actually as a first step towards an integrated spatially explicit model for describing pike dynamics, a model mimicking the movement of pike in the river Yser, Belgium, is proposed. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.