Sponge occurrence and associated species and habitat descriptions derived from the 2021 and 2022 SCUBA diving surveys in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest, Nova Scotia

Funded under DFO's Marine Conservation Targets Program in partnership with the Huntsman Marine Science Centre (HMSC), this diver-based imagery and sample collection benthic survey documents the occurrence of sponges at 42 dive sites in the Eastern Shore Islands (ESI) Area of Interest (AOI, ~2089 km2) off the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada from dive surveys conducted in summer 2021 and 2022. Water quality, species occurrences and counts, habitat, slope, and substrate characteristics were catalogued through diver log sheets, camera imagery, specimen vouchers, and high-resolution bathymetric data. A total of 54 dives to depths from 11 to 33 m (below sea level), collecting up to 147 still images, one-hour of video, and 17 specimen samples per site, resulted in 220 observations for 27 different sponge taxa. This included three new records for Canada (Hymedesmia stellifera, Plocamionida arndti, Hymedesmia jecusculum) and a range extension for a species new to science (Crellomima mehqisinpekonuta) which was recently described from the Bay of Fundy. There were also four species which may seem to be new to science (Halichondria sp., Hymedesmia sp., Protosuberires sp., and Sphaerotylus sp.). Sponges were found to occupy a diversity of micro-habitats, often several different ones in proximity. A total of eight distinct habitat classes were defined, based on varying abundances and diversity of sponges and associated benthic species. These are likely widely distributed among the many complex submerged seabed features within this AOI. Collected specimens were preserved and are stored at the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC) in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick.

Cite this data as: Goodwin, C., Cooper, J.A., Lawton, P., Teed, L.L. 2025. Sponge occurrence and associated species and habitat descriptions derived from the 2021 and 2022 SCUBA diving surveys in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest, Nova Scotia. Version 1.4. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Occurrence dataset. https://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/resource?r=eastern_shore_islands_sponge_survey_2021_2022&v=1.4

Simple

Date ( RI_366 )
2025-04-02
Date ( RI_367 )
2025-05-16
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Coastal Ecosystem Science Division (CESD) - Andrew Cooper ( )
125 Marine Science Drive , St.Andrews , New Brunswick , E5B 0E4 , Canada
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Coastal Ecosystem Science Division (CESD) - Peter Lawton ( )
125 Marine Science Drive , St. Andrews , New Brunswick , E5B 0E4 , Canada
RI_408
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Coastal Ecosystem Science Division (CESD) - Laura Teed ( )
125 Marine Science Drive , St. Andrews , New Brunswick , E5B 0E4 , Canada
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned; nonPlanifié RI_542
Keywords
  • Regional and National Core funds
  • Marine Conservation Target
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Oceans
  • Coastal waters
  • Environment
  • Aquatic ecosystems
Use limitation
Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
Access constraints
license; licence RI_606
Use constraints
license; licence RI_606
Classification
unclassified; nonClassifié RI_484
Spatial representation type
vector; vecteur RI_635
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Oceans
Begin date
2021-07-19
End date
2022-09-02
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Reference system identifier
https://epsg.io / EPSG:4326 /
Distribution format
  • CSV ( 1 )

  • ESRI REST ( 2.7.0 )

  • FGDB/GDB ( 2.7.0 )

RI_412
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Data Acquisition Assembly and Distribution / Acquisition, assemblage et distribution de donnée ( )
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 1 Challenger Drive, PO Box 1006 , Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , B2Y 4A2 , Canada
OnLine resource
Data dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Species occurrence and locations in the Eastern Shore Islands dive survey from 2021 and 2022 ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Dive site descriptions ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Species occurrence in the Eastern Shore Islands dive survey from 2021 and 2022 ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Environmental parameters data ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Dive site locations ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Dive site locations ( HTTPS )

Dataset;FGDB/GDB;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Sponge occurrence and associated species and habitat descriptions derived from the 2021 and 2022 SCUBA diving surveys in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest, Nova Scotia ( ESRI REST: Map Service )

Web Service;ESRI REST;eng

OnLine resource
Sponge occurrence and associated species and habitat descriptions derived from the 2021 and 2022 SCUBA diving surveys in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest, Nova Scotia ( ESRI REST: Map Service )

Web Service;ESRI REST;fra

OnLine resource
Technical Report ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;PDF;eng

File identifier
30444c8b-a9f6-4b16-befa-22f967b583e5 XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2025-05-22T11:13:15.899Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_414
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Coastal Ecosystem Science Division (CESD) - CESD Data Manager / DSEC Gestionnaire de données ( Data Manager )
125 Marine Science Drive , St. Andrews , New Brunswick , E5B 0E4 , Canada
 
 

Overviews

overview
SCUBA diving survey locations in the Eastern Shore Islands from 2021 and 2022

Spatial extent

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Keywords


Provided by

Associated resources

Not available