The Quebec—Saint-Lawrence River dataset is part of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Shoreline Classification and Pre-Spill database. Shoreline classification data has been developed for use by the Environmental Emergencies Program of Environment and Climate Change Canada for environmental protection purposes. Marine and freshwater shorelines are classified according to the character (substrate and form) of the upper intertidal (foreshore) or upper swash zone (Sergy, 2008). This is the area where oil from a spill usually becomes stranded and where the treatment or cleanup activities take place. The basic parameter that defines the shoreline type is the material that is present in the intertidal zone. The presence or absence of sediments is a key factor in determining whether oil is stranded on the surface of a substrate or can penetrate and/or be buried. This dataset contains thousands of linear shoreline segments ranging in length from 200 m and 2 km long. The entities represent the location of the segments and their geomorphological description. There exist further fields in the attribute table for this dataset. We are currently working on standardizing our shoreline segmentation datasets and the updated data will soon be uploaded to the catalog. Sergy, G. (2008). The Shoreline Classification Scheme for SCAT and Oil Spill Response in Canada. Proceedings of the 31stArctic and Marine Oil Spill Program Technical Seminar.Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON, Pp. 811-819.

Hunting districts as presented in the Compendium of Migratory Bird Hunting Regulations: Quebec https://www.canada.ca/fr/environnement-changement-climatique/services/chasse-oiseaux-migrateurs-gibier/reglementation-resumes-provinciaux-territoriaux/quebec.html These boundaries are presented for information purposes only and have no legal value.

A global decline in seagrass populations has led to renewed calls for their conservation as important providers of biogenic and foraging habitat, shoreline stabilization, and carbon storage. Eelgrass (Zostera marina) occupies the largest geographic range among seagrass species spanning a commensurately broad spectrum of environmental conditions. In Canada, eelgrass is managed as a single phylogroup despite occurring across three oceans and a range of ocean temperatures and salinity gradients. Previous research has focused on applying relatively few markers to reveal population structure of eelgrass, whereas a whole genome approach is warranted to investigate cryptic structure among populations inhabiting different ocean basins and localized environmental conditions. We used a pooled whole-genome re-sequencing approach to characterize population structure, gene flow, and environmental associations of 23 eelgrass populations ranging from the Northeast United States, to Atlantic, subarctic, and Pacific Canada. We identified over 500,000 SNPs, which when mapped to a chromosome-level genome assembly revealed six broad clades of eelgrass across the study area, with pairwise FST ranging from 0 among neighbouring populations to 0.54 between Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Genetic diversity was highest in the Pacific and lowest in the subarctic, consistent with colonization of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans from the Pacific less than 300 kya. Using redundancy analyses and two climate change projection scenarios, we found that subarctic populations are predicted to be more vulnerable to climate change through genomic offset predictions. Conservation planning in Canada should thus ensure that representative populations from each identified clade are included within a national network so that latent genetic diversity is protected, and gene flow is maintained. Northern populations, in particular, may require additional mitigation measures given their potential susceptibility to a rapidly changing climate. Cite this data as: Jeffery, Nicholas et al. (2024). Data from: Variation in genomic vulnerability to climate change across temperate populations of eelgrass (Zostera marina) [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xpnvx0kp2

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) Québec Boréale Waterfowl Survey used helicopters to annually survey breeding waterfowl over five years from 1985-1989 on 10x10 km (100 km²) plots located within the Chibougamau region of Québec, a boreal zone at the heart of the American Black Duck's breeding range. The goals of the QCBO100 were to assess the impact of new hunting restrictions for the American Black Duck and to act as a pilot survey to help establish a standardized helicopter-based breeding pair survey for the Black Duck Joint Venture (BDJV) across the American Black Duck’s range. Similar pilot surveys were carried out in Ontario, the Maritimes, and on the island of Newfoundland, using different survey protocols in terms of plot size, selection, and survey frequency, providing an opportunity to compare result quality and cost. For further details and comparisons among these pilot surveys, see Ross et al. (2017). Complete bilingual metadata including detailed survey design, protocols and data dictionaries is available in downloadable files. Ross, R.K., Bateman, M.C. and Bordage, D. 2017. Experimental Helicopter-based Waterfowl Breeding Pair Surveys in Eastern Canada,1985–1989. Pages 83 – 94 in Bordage, D., Bateman, M.C., Ross, R.K. and Lepage, C. (editors). Helicopter-based waterfowl breeding pair survey in eastern Canada and related studies. Black Duck Joint Venture Special Publication. 236 pp.

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) Québec Lowlands Survey (Suivi des basses-terres) uses helicopters to annually survey breeding waterfowl on square 2x2 km (4 km²) plots located in three lowland areas in Southern Québec (St. Lawrence, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Abitibi-Temiscamingue) within the breeding range of early nesters such as the American Black Duck, Mallard, Canada Goose and Wood Duck. The main goal of the survey is to generate reliable indices for trends of all waterfowl species with similar breeding phenology nesting within the Québec lowlands, i.e. annual indices should provide estimates of the population with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 10%, and population trend should detect a 10% decline over a period of 5 years with 90% confidence. A more specific goal is to monitor relative trends of American Black Duck and Mallard, given their competition for habitat in this region of Québec. Complete bilingual metadata including detailed survey design, protocols and data dictionaries is available in downloadable files.

Since 1988, the governments of Canada and Quebec have been working together to conserve, restore, protect and develop the St. Lawrence River under the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP). One of the projects identified under the theme of biodiversity conservation is the development of an integrated plan for the conservation of the natural environments and biodiversity of the St. Lawrence River. The identification of priority sites for conservation has been the first step of this planning exercise. Conservation planning of natural environments requires a reliable, accurate and up-to-date image of the spatial distribution of ecosystems in the study area. In order to produce an Atlas of Priority Sites for Conservation in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, an updated cartography of the land cover of this vast territory was undertaken. This project required obtaining reliable information on the natural environments of the St. Lawrence Lowlands. Although several land cover mapping projects have been conducted for specific types of habitats, it was particularly important to obtain a homogeneous product that would cover the entire territory and that would provide the most detailed information on its various thematic components: agricultural, aquatic, human-modified and forest environments, wetlands as well as old fields and bare ground. The methodology used to produce the land cover mapping of the St. Lawrence Lowlands thus relied mainly on combining and enhancing the best existing products for each theme. This project was made in collaboration with MDDELCC as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP).

The Atlantic dataset is part of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Shoreline Classification and Pre-Spill database. Shoreline classification data has been developed for use by the Environmental Emergencies Program of Environment and Climate Change Canada for environmental protection purposes. Marine and estuarine shorelines are classified according to the character (substrate and form) of the upper intertidal (foreshore) or upper swash zone (Sergy, 2008). This is the area where oil from a spill usually becomes stranded and where treatment or cleanup activities take place. The basic parameter that defines the shoreline type is the material that is present in the intertidal zone. The presence or absence of sediments is a key factor in determining whether oil is stranded on the surface of a substrate or can penetrate and/or be buried. This dataset contains thousands of linear shoreline segments ranging in length from 200 m and 2 km long. The entities represent the location of the segments and their geomorphological description. There exist further fields in the attribute table for this dataset. We are currently working on standardizing our shoreline segmentation datasets and the updated data will soon be uploaded to the catalog. Sergy, G. (2008). The Shoreline Classification Scheme for SCAT and Oil Spill Response in Canada. Proceedings of the 31stArctic and Marine Oil Spill Program Technical Seminar.Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON, Pp. 811-819.

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) Québec BCR7 Scoter and Late Nester Survey used helicopters to survey late nesting waterfowl on 5x5 km (25 km²) plots in the Québec portion of Bird Conservation Region 7 (BCR7) in 2014. BCR7 extends across much of the Canadian shield and spans eight provinces and territories. In Québec, BCR7 is the largest of the BCRs, representing 37% of the province’s territory and spanning from Hudson Bay and James Bay in the west to the Labrador border in the east. This region represents the transition from boreal to arctic habitats, bordered by boreal forests to the south and treeless tundra to the north. The main goal of the QCB725 was to fill a monitoring gap for sea ducks and other late nesters on the taiga in Québec, and in particular scoters (genus Melanitta), as most traditional waterfowl surveys do not cover their breeding range or late nesting phenology. Complete bilingual metadata including detailed survey design, protocols and data dictionaries is available in downloadable files.

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) Québec Nunavik Great Whale (Grande Baleine) Waterfowl Survey used helicopters to survey breeding waterfowl on 25 10x10 km (100 km²) in 1991 during both the nesting and rearing periods on square plots located within the Great Whale River wetland complex, a heterogeneous network of inland lakes, ponds, and river-associated wetlands distributed across the Grande rivière de la Baleine watershed in Northern Québec and Nunavik. The survey targeted three main species (Canada Goose, Black Scoter and Surf Scoter) but recorded observations of 25 waterfowl species in total. The primary goal of the survey was to model the habitat associations of the three target species, combining observational data with habitat characterization using remote sensing, and subsequently to assess the reproductive potential of these three species over a larger area. Complete bilingual metadata including detailed survey design, protocols and data dictionaries is available in downloadable files.

The Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) Northern Canada Scoter Survey used helicopters to survey breeding scoters in 5x5 km (25 km²) plots in six study areas across Northern Canada in the Northwest Territories (NT), Manitoba (MN) and Québec (QC) from 2017-2019. Populations of North American breeding scoters appeared to be in decline, albeit with a large degree of uncertainty around population size estimates and trends due to challenges related to surveying this group of sea ducks. The main goal of the survey was to address the major monitoring gap for scoters in Canada, as most traditional waterfowl surveys do not cover their breeding range or late nesting phenology. In addition to targeting three species of scoter, the survey targeted other sea duck species including scaup, mergansers and Long-tailed Ducks. Complete bilingual metadata including detailed survey design, protocols and data dictionaries is available in downloadable files. Note: A version of this dataset was published January 2025 (Record Name: Scoter Experimental Surveys, NT, MB, QC, 2017-2019 / Inventaires Expérimentaux de Macreuses, NT, MB, QC, 2017-2019, Identifier: 9cddead7-1dc8-4379-afc5-0275b7449bd5). This published version includes the same observation and plot data as the previous version but also includes more detailed survey conditions data, and has been formatted to the schema of QWAC-QSC (Quantifying Waterfowl Across Canada database - Base de données sur la Quantification de la Sauvagine au Canada). See the parent record for "Waterfowl Surveys in Canada" (Identifier: 0af7faf5-495c-4074-9cf6-7dc12e6bfe3f) for more information.