Rheoreaction impacts dispersal of fish larvae in restored rivers.

Connectivity of nurseries and spawning habitats for young of the year life stage is essential for successful recruitment of fish populations and therefore provides a key indicator for river restoration measures. Models for dispersal offer the potential to draw conclusions regarding restoration scenarios and to fill knowledge gaps about possible implications for fish populations. A newly developed rheoreaction-based correlated random walk model (RCRW), in combination with a three-dimensional numerical model and a non-steady-state particle tracing model, was applied for nase carp larvae () before and after a restoration project on the river Danube, Austria.