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Abstract
Hydrilla is an invasive aquatic macrophyte that negatively impacts use of waterways for navigation, commercial fishing, irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation, as well as various aspects of sportfish community ecology. Hydrilla was introduced to Lake Sinclair, Georgia in 2018 and has spread rapidly throughout the reservoir, forcing managers to seek effective hydrilla assessment techniques, and to determine how the sportfish community is impacted from widespread hydrilla expansion. Obtaining accurate assessments of hydrilla coverage is imperative for the development of successful management strategies, and traditional assessment methods (i.e., line-transects and side-scan sonar) are expensive, time consuming, and often inaccurate. Furthermore, previous research on the impact of hydrilla on fish communities has been inconsistent across systems. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to 1.) develop satellite image classification techniques for identifying hydrilla, and 2.) examine changes in sportfish community dynamics and demographics following the hydrilla invasion.