Aerial images taken by drones could help scientists to better understand the beneficial effects of trees shaping rivers during hot weather.
Tree planting has long been used as a way of keeping rivers cool.
Marine Scotland said fish such as salmon and brown trout were "relatively intolerant" of high temperatures.
It has been working on research that could eventually guide the "targeted planting" of trees where they would have the "greatest benefits".
Marine Scotland and the University of Birmingham have carried out the research because of concerns of the effect that increasing temperatures due to climate changes is having on rivers.
Low-cost
Last summer, a drone equipped with a high-resolution camera was flown over a tributary of the River Dee in Aberdeenshire.
Aerial images were taken of a section of the Girnock Burn and then used in the creating of a 3D map of tree heights along its banks.
The burn's salmon population has been the subject of monitoring work for more than 50 years.
Marine Scotland said drones could offer a low-cost method of studying remote stretches of rivers in Scotland, and the rest of the UK.
Information gathered by drones could be used to develop targeted planting at locations where trees would have the "greatest benefits in reducing the effects of climate change", it said.
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