A Computer Program for Calculating the Distance Between Sites in the Columbia River Basin
Abstract
In landscape genetics analyses, it is useful to measure the physical distance between collections or populations of interest in order to study the effect of distance on genetic diversity and population structure. Simple measurements such as Euclidean distance can be misleading, however, because fish and other species may be restricted to travel through relatively circuitous migration pathways such as a stream network rather than directly overland across the landscape. The Pairwise Stream Distance Application is a tool developed in Microsoft Access software to resolve the fluvial distance of the shortest path between pairs of sites in a stream network. It may be operated on a single pair of sites or simultaneously on a batch of multiple sites to generate a pairwise distance matrix. The tool is built with comprehensive stream information for the Columbia River Basin of the U.S., but may also be modified for use in other river basins. It is available for free download and use from a web address at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
Authors
Citation
Graves, D. 2009. A computer program for calculating the distance between sites in the Columbia River Basin. Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Technical Report 11-3. Portland, OR. 7p.