1983). As support for summer flounder populations. Mid-Atlantic shallows should be classified 
by salinity. Other examples of classification may include lagoonal systems versus riverine 
systems versus embayments, and microtidal systems versus macrotidal systems. Regionalization 
will, of necessity, be part of this exercise as well. In some cases, these questions of habitat 
classification will be answerable through the literature; in other cases new research efforts may 
be required. 
Products 
APM lA FY02 Listings of the high-priority species of fish, shellfish, and aquatic-dependent 
wildlife for study in each biogeographic region, and listings of the habitats that are considered to 
be critical to each (WED). 
APM 3F (GPRA # 58) FY04 Preliminary report characterizing relationships between abundance, 
quality, and arrangement of various habitat types and selected biotic assessment endpoints in 
coastal systems (WED). 
APM 5B FY06 Report characterizing relationships between abundance, quality, and arrangement 
of various habitat types and selected biotic assessment endpoints in coastal systems (WED, AED, 
GED, MED). 
APM 6C FY08 Synthesized quantitative species-habitat relationships suitable for developing 
regional habitat-based biocriteria for shorelines, lakes, and estuaries (AED, GED, MED, WED). 
Benefits of Products 
This work is designed to provide EPA Program Offices and Regions with simple validated 
models that can quantify the effects of alteration or loss (either partial or total) of any major lake 
or estuarine habitat on populations of economically valuable or charismatic fish, shellfish, and 
wildlife. This work will also be of value to other Federal, State, and local managers striving to 
protect living aquatic resources from degradation due to habitat alteration. 
This work will also link to the load-response efforts proposed in the Nutrients research 
implementation plan (Section 5), in that habitat alteration can occur through destruction and 
fragmentation, nutrient loadings, or other stressors. The products in the Nutrient plan (Section 5) 
regarding load-response models include loss of SAV habitat, loss of benthic habitat due to 
hypoxia and anoxia, and increases in macroalgal habitat; but do not focus on fish, shellfish, and 
wildlife. The aquatic shoreline, whole-estuary, and whole-lake scale habitat alteration- 
jX)pulation response work proposed here can tie the nutrient habitat endpoints to population 
endpoints for economically valuable or charismatic species. 
Since these habitat alteration-population response models will be designed to fit within a risk- 
assessment framework by quantitatively linking habitat alteration to population response, this 
work can also integrate into larger, multi-scalar, spatially explicit, multiple stressor risk 
assessment models. 
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