Delineation of Coral and Sponge Significant Benthic Areas in Eastern Canada (2016)

Significant Benthic Areas are defined in DFO's Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF) as "significant areas of cold-water corals and sponge dominated communities", where significance is determined "through guidance provided by DFO-lead processes based on current knowledge of such species, communities and ecosystems". Here we provide maps of the location of significant concentrations of corals and sponges on the east coast of Canada produced through quantitative analyses of research vessel trawl survey data, supplemented with other data sources where available. We have conducted those analyses following a bio-regionalization approach in order to facilitate modelling of similar species, given that many of the multispecies surveys do not record coral and sponge catch at species level resolution. The taxa analyzed are sponges (Porifera), large and small gorgonian corals (Alcyonacea), and sea pens (Pennatulacea). We applied kernel density estimation (KDE) to create a modelled biomass surface for each of those taxa, and applied an aerial expansion method to identify significant concentrations, following an approach first applied in 2010 to this region. We compared our results to those obtained previously. KDE uses only geo-referenced biomass data to identify "hot spots". The borders of the areas so identified can be refined using knowledge of null catches and species distribution models that predict species presence-absence and/or biomass, both incorporating environmental data.

Simple

Date ( RI_367 )
2017-06-29
Date ( RI_366 )
2016-04-01
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada - OESD Data Request / DSEM Demande de donnés (DFO/MPO) ( )
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 1 Challenger Drive, P.O. Box 1006 , Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , B2Y 4A2 , Canada
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned; nonPlanifié RI_542
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
vector; vecteur RI_635
Metadata language
eng
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Topic category
  • Oceans
Begin date
1995
End date
2015
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Supplemental Information

These polygons define Significant Benthic Areas as regional habitat that contains sponges (Porifera), large and small gorgonians (Alcyonacea, formerly classed as Gorgonacea) and/or sea pens (Pennatulacea) as a dominant and defining feature. These habitats are structurally complex, characterized by higher diversities and/or different benthic communities, and provide a platform for ecosystem functions/processes closely linked to these characteristics. The enclosure of the significant benthic areas were accomplished by kernel density estimation (KDE), Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) using Random Forest (RF) and observations of these taxa. The study area for this analysis is the entirety of Atlantic Canada and portions of the Eastern Arctic, which corresponds to five major Canadian biogeographic units: the Scotian Shelf, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves, and portions of the Eastern Arctic and Hudson Bay Complex (DFO 2009). The species distribution models (SDMs) were performed using DFO Marine Protected Area (MPA) planning regions which are similar but not identical to the DFO Regions. Full details of the approaches employed, are provided in the following CSAS document:

Delineation of Coral and Sponge Significant Benthic Areas in Eastern Canada Using Kernel Density Analyses and Species Distribution Models (2016)

Direct download of this dataset is available at Mendeley Data: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/hnp4xr2sy3

A summary of the Significant Benthic Areas of cold water corals and sponges identified in eastern Canada:

- Maritimes Region (For more details, please refer to page 98 of the report above)

* Sponges: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Sea pens: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses and RF predicted presence prevalence.

* Large gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses and RF predicted presence prevalence.

* Small gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses and RF predicted presence prevalence.

- Gulf of St. Lawrence (For more details, please refer to page 105 of the report above)

* Sponges: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Sea pens: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

- Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves (For more details, please refer to page 111 of the report above)

* Sponges: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Sea pens: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses and RF predicted presence prevalence.

* Large gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Small gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

- Hudson Strait Complex (For more details, please refer to page 119 of the report above)

* Sponges: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

- Eastern Arctic (For more details, please refer to page 120 of the report above)

* Sponges: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Sea pens: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.

* Large gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses and RF predicted presence prevalence.

* Small gorgonian corals: Significant Benthic Areas as determined from KDE analyses.
Reference system identifier
http://www.epsg-registry.org / EPSG:4326 / 8.2.6
Distribution format
  • ESRI REST ( 10.6.1 )

  • FGDB/GDB ( 2.8.8 )

  • CSV ( N/A )

  • PDF ( N/A )

RI_414
  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
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
Research Document ( HTTP )

Supporting Document;PDF;eng

OnLine resource
Delineation of Coral and Sponge Significant Benthic Areas in Eastern Canada (2016) ( HTTPS )

Dataset;FGDB/GDB;eng

OnLine resource
Data Dictionary ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
Coral and Sponge Significant Benthic Areas ( ESRI REST: Map Server )

Web Service;ESRI REST;eng

OnLine resource
Coral and Sponge Significant Benthic Areas ( ESRI REST: Map Server )

Web Service;ESRI REST;fra

File identifier
6af357a3-3be1-47d5-9d1f-e4f809c4c903 XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2025-02-04T20:07:53.939Z
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, P.O. Box 1006 , Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , B2Y 4A2 , Canada
 
 

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