Species Suitability Modeling of Caspian kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum) based on A Multi-Criteria Evaluation for in Southern Caspian Sea

Habitat loss is one of the most serious threats to the recovery of fish stocks and can jeopardize the ability of marine coastal areas to support artisanal fisheries. On the other hand, habitat species modeling is a practicable solution for conservation and protection of marine ecosystems and habitats. In the present study, species suitability modeling was applied to determine habitat of Caspian kutum in southern Caspian Sea that five environmental variables include depth, chlorophyll a, photosynthetically active radiation, sea level anomaly and sea surface temperature were used. The results show that the most habitat suitability of Caspian kutum was in southwest Caspian Sea (include 8c, 25 and 15b indices) and depth and chlorophyll a are the most important environmental variables for the Caspian kutum to modeling its habitats. The results of accuracy assessment for weighted scenarios show that best scenario considering the AUC ROCs of 0.69. According to suggests that output of present study used a criteria for identifying marine protected areas, site selection of aquaculture and others Ecosystem Services Models in southern Caspian Sea.