The objective of the study was to describe the spatial distribution of krill in eastern Canadian waters using a statistical modelling approach in support of the identification of important habitat for the western North Atlantic (WNA) blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were used to predict ‘Significant Aggregations of Krill’ (SAK), i.e., areas where dense krill aggregations would have a greater probability of occurring. SAK cover less than 2% of the entire spatial domain and their location varied among krill categories and seasons. These SAK are interpreted as areas where environmental conditions promote krill aggregation on a regular basis and therefore are potentially important for WNA blue whale foraging in eastern Canadian waters. Plourde, S., Lehoux, C., McQuinn, I.H., and Lesage, V. 2016. Describing krill distribution in the western North Atlantic using statistical habitat models. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/111. v + 34 p.

Cool Wave Days are the number of days in the forecast period with a minimum temperature below the cardinal minimum temperature, the lowest temperature at which crop growth will begin (dcw-warm). This temperature is 10°C for warm season crops. Week 1 and week 2 forecasted index is available daily from April 1 to October 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted index is available weekly (Thursday) from April 1 to October 31. Warm season crops require a relatively warm temperature condition. Typical examples include bean, soybean, corn and sweet potato. They normally grow during the summer season and early fall, then ripen in late fall in southern Canada only. Other agricultural regions in Canada do not always experience sufficiently long growing seasons for these plants to achieve maturity. The optimum temperature for such crops is 30°C. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

The number of days during the forecast period with an average wind speed greater than 30 km/h (nswd_prob). Week 1 and week 2 forecasted probability is available daily from September 1 to August 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted probability is available weekly (Thursday) from September 1 to August 31. Winds can significantly influence crop growth and yield mainly due to mechanical damage of plant vegetative and reproductive organs, an imbalance of plant-soil-atmosphere water relationships, and pest and disease distributions in agricultural fields. The maximum wind speed and the number of strong wind days over the forecast period represent short term and extended strong wind events respectively. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

The Probability (likelihood) of cool wave days for warm season crops occurring. Cool Wave Days are the number of days in the forecast period with a minimum temperature below the cardinal minimum temperature, the lowest temperature at which crop growth will begin (dcw_warm_prob). This temperature is 10°C for warm season crops. Week 1 and week 2 forecasted probability is available daily from April 1 to October 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted probability is available weekly (Thursday) from April 1 to October 31. Warm season crops require a relatively warm temperature condition. Typical examples include bean, soybean, corn and sweet potato. They normally grow during the summer season and early fall, then ripen in late fall in southern Canada only. Other agricultural regions in Canada do not always experience sufficiently long growing seasons for these plants to achieve maturity. The optimum temperature for such crops is 30°C. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

Wildfire change year 1985-2022. Wildfire changes occurred from 1985 to 2022 displaying the year of greatest wildfire disturbance. It is developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS). The information outcomes represent 38 years of wildfires in Canada's forests, derived from a single, consistent, spatially explicit data source in a fully automated manner. Time series of Landsat data with 30 m spatial resolution were used to characterize national trends in stand replacing forest disturbances caused by wildfire for the period 1985-2022 for Canada's 650-million-hectare forested ecosystems. When using this data, please cite as: Hermosilla, T., M.A. Wulder, J.C. White, N.C. Coops, G.W. Hobart, L.B. Campbell, 2016. Mass data processing of time series Landsat imagery: pixels to data products for forest monitoring. International Journal of Digital Earth 9(11), 1035-1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2016.1187673 (Hermosilla et al. 2016). See references below for an overview on the data processing, metric calculation, change attribution, and time series change detection methods applied, as well as information on independent accuracy assessment of the data.. Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M. A., White, J. C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., (2015). An integrated Landsat time series protocol for change detection and generation of annual gap-free surface reflectance composites. Remote Sensing of Environment 158, 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.11.005 (Hermosilla et al. 2015a). Hermosilla, T., Wulder, M.A., White, J.C., Coops, N.C., Hobart, G.W., (2015). Regional detection, characterization, and attribution of annual forest change from 1984 to 2012 using Landsat-derived time-series metrics. Remote Sensing of Environment 170, 121-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.09.004 (Hermosilla et al. 2015b). Hermosilla, T., M.A. Wulder, J.C. White, N.C. Coops, G. W. Hobart, (2017). Updating Landsat time series of surface-reflectance composites and forest change products with new observations. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. 63,104-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2017.07.013 (Hermosilla et al. 2017).

The number of days in the forecast period with a minimum temperature below the frost temperature. It is -15°C for herbaceous crops over the dormant period (ifd_wood_nogrow). Week 1 and week 2 forecasted index is available daily from November 1 to March 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted index is available weekly (Thursday) from November 1 to March 31. Over-wintering crops are biennial and perennial field crops such as herbaceous plants (strawberry, alfalfa, timothy, and many other forage crops) and woody fruit trees (apple, pear, peach, cherry, plum, apricot, chestnut, pecan, grape, etc.). These crops normally grow and develop in the growing season and become dormant in the non-growing season. However, extreme weather and climate events such as cold waves in the growing season and ice freezing events during the winter are a major constraint for their success of production and survival in Canada. The winter survival of these plants depends largely on agrometeorological conditions from late autumn to early spring, especially ice-freezing damage during the winter season. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

High-resolution map of leading tree species distribution for Canada’s forested ecosystems (2019). Leading tree species map produced from a 2019 Landsat image composite, geographic and climate data, elevation derivatives, and remote sensing derived phenology following the framework described in Hermosilla et al. (2022). Regional classification models were generated based on Canada’s National Forest Inventory using a 150x150 km tiling system. The leading tree species are defined by representing the most voted tree species from the Random Forests classification models (i.e. the class with the highest class membership probability).The data represents leading tree species of Canada's forested ecosystems in 2019. An image compositing window of August 1 ± 30 days was used to generate the best-available-pixel (BAP) image composites utilized as source data for the classification. The science and methods developed to generate the information outcomes shown here, that track and characterize the history of Canada’s forests, were led by Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, developed within the framework of Canada’s National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS), partnered with the University of British Columbia, augmented by processing capacity from Digital Research Alliance of Canada. For an overview on the data, image processing, and methods applied, as well as information on independent accuracy assessment of the data, see Hermosilla et al. (2022) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.113276 When using this data, please cite as: Hermosilla, T., Bastyr, A., Coops, N.C., White, J.C., Wulder, M.A., 2022. Mapping the presence and distribution of tree species in Canada’s forested ecosystems. Remote Sensing of Environment 282, 113276.

Probability of daily precipitation above 25mm over the forecast period (p1d25_prob). Week 1 and week 2 forecasted probability is available daily from September 1 to August 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted probability is available weekly (Thursday) from September 1 to August 31. Units: mm Precipitation (moisture availability) establishes the economic yield potential and product quality of field crops. Both dry and wet precipitation extremes have the ability to inhibit proper crop growth. The greatest daily precipitation index covers the risk of excessive precipitation in the short term, while the other indices pertain to longer term moisture availability. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.

The greatest 10-day precipitation total expected over the next 2 weeks (p10d). Week 1 and week 2 forecasted index is available daily from September 1 to August 31. Week 3 and week 4 forecasted index is available weekly (Thursday) from September 1 to August 31. Units: cm/10 days Precipitation (moisture availability) establishes the economic yield potential and product quality of field crops. Both dry and wet precipitation extremes have the ability to inhibit proper crop growth. The greatest daily precipitation index covers the risk of excessive precipitation in the short term, while the other indices pertain to longer term moisture availability. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) have together developed a suite of extreme agrometeorological indices based on four main categories of weather factors: temperature, precipitation, heat, and wind. The extreme weather indices are intended as short-term prediction tools and generated using ECCC’s medium range forecasts to create a weekly index product on a daily and weekly basis.