Habitat Loss and Plains Sucker System Capacity

Species Common Name

Plains Sucker

Latin Name (Genus species)

Pantosteus jordani

Stressor Name

Habitat loss

Specific Stressor Metric

Total habitat loss

Stressor Units

% lost

Vital Rate (Process)

Survival

Life Stage

adult

Season

All seasons

Activity

All activities

Geography

Saskatchewan

Detailed SR Function Description

Habitat loss is defined as a proportion of the total habitat that has been lost (relative to pristine or historical conditions). Habitat loss could also be the amount of habitat that has been converted to non-suitable habitat.

Function Derivation

Expert opinion

Transferability of Function

This stressor-response function is suitable for use on Plains Sucker populations in the Saskatchewan-Nelson and Missouri River drainages in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. It may be reasonable to assume the SR function can be applied to Cordilleran Sucker, given the similarity of their physical characteristics (prior to 2023 both species were classified under a single species, Mountain Sucker); however, there is no data to confirm this assumption. Therefore, more data is required and caution should be taken when using this function on other species.

Source of stressor Data

Practical application of the SR function necessitates that users obtain estimates of stressor magnitude (level) in the target system. We don’t currently have data on habitat loss or biomass density data to compare pre- and post- habitat destruction.

Function Type

continuous

Stressor Scale

linear

Citation(s)

Jarvis, L. 2022. Habitat loss stressor-response function for Plains Sucker. Department of Fisheries and Oceans CEMPRA model for Plains Sucker.

File Upload

Plains Sucker - Habitat Loss CEMPRA SR Function (24.99 KB)

Plains Sucker - Habitat Loss SR function documentation (39.16 KB)

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