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Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas

Effective fisheries and habitat management processes require knowledge of the distribution of areas of high ecological or biological significance. On the Scotian Shelf and Slope, a number of benthic ecologically or biologically significant areas consisting of habitat-forming species such as sponges and deep-water corals have been identified. However, knowledge of their spatial distribution is largely based on targeted surveys that are limited in their spatial extent. We used a species distribution modelling approach called random forest (RF) to predict the probability of occurrence and biomass of sponges, sea pens, and large and small gorgonian corals across the entire spatial extent of Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Maritimes Region. We also modelled the rare sponge Vazella pourtalesi, which forms the largest known aggregation of its kind on the Scotian Shelf. We utilized a number of data sources including DFO multispecies trawl catch data and in situ benthic imagery observations. Most models had excellent predictive capacity with cross-validated Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.760 to 0.977. Areas of suitable habitat were identified for each taxon and were contrasted against their known distribution and when applicable, the location of closure areas designated for their protection. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were developed to predict the biomass distribution of each taxonomic group and serve as a comparison to the RF models. The RF and GAM models provided comparable results, although GAMs provided superior predictions of biomass along the continental slope for some taxonomic groups. In the absence of data observations, the results of this study could be used to identify the potential distribution of sensitive benthic taxa for use in fisheries and habitat management applications. These results could also be used to refine significant concentrations of these taxa as identified through the kernel density analyses.

Cite this data as: Beazley, Lindsay; Kenchington, Ellen; Murillo-Perez, Javier; Lirette, Camille; Guijarro-Sabaniel, Javier; McMillan, Andrew; Knudby, Anders (2019). Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas. Published July 2023. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/356e92f3-5bf3-4810-98b1-3e10cd7742aa

Simple

Date ( RI_367 )
2019-01-21
Date ( RI_366 )
2016
RI_415
  Government of Canada;Fisheries and Oceans Canada - Ellen Kenchington ( )
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 1 Challenger Drive, PO Box 1006 , Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , B2Y 4A2 , Canada
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned; nonPlanifié RI_542
Keywords ( RI_528 )
  • Marine Conservation Targets
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Oceans
Classification
unclassified; nonClassifié RI_484
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
Spatial representation type
grid; grille RI_636
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Topic category
  • Oceans
  • Biota
  • Environment
Begin date
1997
End date
2015
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Reference system identifier
http://www.epsg-registry.org / EPSG:4326 / 8.2.6
Distribution format
  • ESRI REST ( 2.7.0 )

  • FGDB/GDB ( 2.7.0 )

  • CSV ( N/A )

  • TIFF ( N/A )

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
Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas ( ESRI REST: Map Server )

Web Service;ESRI REST;eng

OnLine resource
Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas ( ESRI REST: Map Server )

Web Service;ESRI REST;fra

OnLine resource
Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas ( HTTPS )

Dataset;FGDB/GDB;eng

OnLine resource
Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas ( HTTPS )

Dataset;TIFF;zxx

OnLine resource
Raster Data Dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;HTML;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Data Dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

File identifier
356e92f3-5bf3-4810-98b1-3e10cd7742aa XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2025-02-06T12:39:35.472Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_408
  Government of Canada;Fisheries and Oceans Canada - OESD Data Request / DSEM Demande de donnés (DFO/MPO) ( )
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 1 Challenger Drive, PO Box 1006 , Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , B2Y 4A2 , Canada
 
 

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