The Future of Aquatic Habitat Modeling

Aquatic habitat models are relied upon to test ecological hypotheses, assess regulatory compliance, and inform resource management decision making. With early applications driven by engineers and available hydrologic models, aquatic habitat models were predominantly built around physical attributes, such as water depth and velocity. As the range of model practitioner backgrounds increased, the scope of aquatic habitat models have expanded to more fully represent the range of variables that species might encounter when selecting locations to grow, reproduce, eat, etc. In addition, habitat models are increasingly used to inform population dynamics models. These recent developments have led to models that estimate carrying capacity and feature biological responses such as bioenergetics and net rates of energy intake. In this special issue, we hope to bring together authors that can highlight novel aquatic habitat model techniques, theories, and applications.

The goal of this special issue is to highlight the state of science in aquatic habitat modeling, with particular reference to historical approaches and future directions. The structure and utility of aquatic habitat models has long been debated and critiqued; thus our goal is to collate articles on contemporary field, modeling, and statistical techniques used to quantify aquatic habitat to better understand how the field is progressing. Furthermore, the research papers developing or applying aquatic habitat modeling are spread across many journals. Given the arc in aquatic habitat modeling techniques, we also intend for this special issue to create a repository where researchers, students, and practitioners can find the most novel methods, applications, and discussions regarding aquatic habitat modeling.

Moreover, this Research Topic aims to compile original, perspectives and review articles on the following sub-themes but not limited to:

- Testing/refining hypotheses about what factors drive species habitat selection.
- Novel field approaches for measuring habitat use.
- Advancement of statistical techniques for analyzing and estimating habitat use.
- Biophysical modeling techniques that advance habitat modeling science.
- Studies that integrate food web ecology as a dimension of habitat.
- Analyses that integrate habitat in population dynamics models.
- Validation and uncertainty assessment in next-generation habitat models.
- Case studies of successful habitat modeling informing management or conservation action.
- Future trends and emerging concepts in aquatic habitat modeling.

Special note from Editors: We respectfully encourage and request the authors to submit their manuscript summary first so that we can evaluate if the manuscript would be suitable for our research topic. This way, we can provide our feedback which could be helpful for the authors to prepare their full manuscript for submission.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: aquatic habitat, models, species, future trends, population dynamics, food web ecology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.