Data from: Some like it cold: A general habitat association model for smallmouth bass in stratified lakes

Associations between fish distribution and environmental or spatial gradients at the population level represent habitat use models with potential to be transferable if model parameters are stationary among populations and over years. Further, population-level habitat use models represent the scale of effect – habitat relevant to within population distribution and processes. Here we show that for a widely recognized warm water fish species (smallmouth bass; Micropterus dolomieu), habitat use based on occupancy models extends their distribution in lakes deeper into the metalimnion and hypolimnion  â€“ some bass like it cold. Lake depth at net sites was the gradient used to model habitat use in a comparative lake set (n=11 lakes) and for a large lake with three surveys over a decade. Bayesian quantile regression, with lakes as random effects, revealed all sizes of bass were present in shallow, warm areas of lakes as expected based on thermal preferences. Large adult bass, and not smalle..., All lakes were surveyed using a depth stratified randomized netting survey with each depth stratum area based on the aerial coverage of a stratum.
The netting survey for each lake used a depth stratified random design with each lake partitioned into depth categories as follows: 1–3 m; 3-6 m; 6–12 m; 12–20 m; 20–x m; more. Net sites were allocated based on aerial percent of each stratum in each lake and therefore represents a fair sample of bottom habitat in the lake as reflected in depth. A net consisted of 8 panels of varying mesh size (38, 51, 64, 76, 89, 102, 114, and 127mm; totaling to 25m in length X 1.8 m in height). See article for availability of depth maps.
Each net set was comprised of two nets tied together in tandem (“strapped”) and separated by approximately 3 m. Netting locations were separated by a minimum of 250 m. Nets were set on bottom for one hour with each net location separated by a minimum of 250 m to reduce or eliminate gear competition. Employing 1-hour sets app..., , # Data from: Some like it cold: A general habitat association model for smallmouth bass in stratified lakes

## Descriptions of .R Files:

Comparison_bass_occupancy.R - Code to recreate the occupancy analysis of the multi-lake dataset and Figure 4. Uses \"Comparison_Lake_data.csv\" file so make sure working directory is set where that file is located. 'ubms' package version used in analysis is listed in script and manuscript, newer versions may give slightly different results from tweaks to default priors.

Opeongo_bass_occupancy.R - Code to recreate the occupancy analysis specific to lake Opeongo and Figure 6. Uses \"Ope_data.csv\" file so make sure working directory is set where that file is located. 'ubms' package version used in analysis is listed in script and manuscript, newer versions may give slightly different results from tweaks to default priors

histograms_and_Quantile_regresion.R - Code to create Figures 2, 3, and 5 in manuscript. Also contains code to reproduce Quantile regres...,