Table of Atlantic salmon habitat preferences or requirements by life stage from Armstrong et al. (2003)
| Life Stage | Habitat Variable | Measure | Values | Authors |
| Adult Spawning | Water Velocity | Mean | 40 cm s-1 | Heggberget (1991) |
| Mean | 53 cm s-1 | Moir et al. (1998), Beland et al. (1982) | ||
| Range | 35–80 cm s-1 | Beland et al. (1982) | ||
| Minimum | >15–20 cm s-1 | Crisp and Carling (1989) | ||
| Water Depth | Mean | 50 cm | Heggberget (1991) | |
| Mean | 25 cm | Moir et al. (1998) | ||
| Mean | 38 cm | Beland et al. (1982) | ||
| Range | 17–76 cm | Beland et al. (1982) | ||
| Substrate Size | Median grain size | 22mm | Kondolf and Wolman (1993) | |
| Median (for several species) | 5.4–78mm | Kondolf and Wolman (1993) | ||
| Mean particle size | 20–30mm | Crisp and Carling (1989) | ||
| Mean particle size | 20.7mm | Moir et al. (1998) | ||
| Mean particle size | 100mm | Heggberget (1991) | ||
| Redd Depth | Mean | 15–25 cm | Bardonnet and Bagliniere (2000) | |
| Percentage Fine Material | <1mm | 5.4% | Moir et al. (1998) | |
| Range | 2.3–8.0% | Moir et al. (1998) | ||
| Fry Nursery Habitat | Snout Water Velocity | Range | 5–15 cm s-1 | Morantz et al. (1987) |
| Range | 10–30 cm s-1 | Rimmer et al. (1984) | ||
| Mean column velocity | Range | 20–40 cm s-1 | Crisp (1993, 1996) | |
| Minimum | >5–15 cm s-1 | Heggenes et al. (1999) | ||
| Maximum | <100 cm s-1 | Heggenes (1990) | ||
| Range | 10–30 cm s-1 | DeGraaf and Bain (1986) | ||
| Water Depth | Maximum (for fry) | <10 cm | Heggenes et al. (1999) | |
| Range (for fry) | 20–40 cm | Morantz et al. (1987) | ||
| Preference (for 0+) | <25 cm | Symons and Heland (1978), Kennedy and Strange (1982), Morantz et al. (1987), Heggenes (1990), Crisp (1993) | ||
| Range | 5–65 cm | Heggenes (1990) | ||
| Maximum | <100 cm | Morantz et al. (1987), Heggenes (1990), Heggenes et al. (1999) | ||
| Substrate size | Range | 16–256mm | Symons and Heland (1978) | |
| Parr Rearing | Snout water velocity | Range | 5–35 cm | Morantz et al. (1987) |
| Range | 0–20 cm | Heggenes et al. (1999) | ||
| Range | 10–50 cm | Rimmer et al. (1984) | ||
| Mean column velocity | Maximum | >60 cm | Heggenes et al. (1999) | |
| Maximum | <120 cm | Morantz et al. (1987) | ||
| Minimum | <20 cm | Heggenes et al. (1999) | ||
| Utilized preference | 50–65 cm | Symons and Heland (1978) | ||
| Utilized preference | 10–65 cm | Heggenes (1990) | ||
| Water depth | Range | 25–60 cm | Symons and Heland (1978), Rimmer et al. (1984), Morantz et al. (1987), Heggenes (1990) | |
| Range | 20–70 cm | Heggenes (1990) | ||
| Substrate size | Range | 64–512+mm | Symons and Heland
(1978), Heggenes (1990) Heggenes et al. (1999) |