The source of the layers in this mxd are derived products originating from the Agri-Environmental (AEI) dataset series. The original source data was re- formatted to enable time display on the layers, with individual soil landscape polygons being dissolved out to allow web optimization. For Layer Names with a year in the title, the source points to the Time Series Datasets, however they have a definition query applied to only display the data corresponding t o a particular year. The datasets in the series should be used in web applications only.

The "Canada's First Fall Frost Normals (1981-2010)" dataset contains the Mean and Median First Fall Frost Julian day calculated from the ANUSPLIN gridded data set using the date range from January 1, 1981 - December 31, 2010. The dataset also includes the Mean and Median Frost Free Period (given as a count of calendar days). For the purposes of this dataset a Frost Free day is defined as a day where the minimum daily temperature is greater than 0.0 Celsius.For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/c293739c-4e16-4384-bff8-e3fdaddc5e5f

The Agri-Environmental Indicator (AEI) dataset series provides information that was created using indicators that assess the environmental impact of agricultural activities. These agri-environmental indicators integrate information on soils, climate and land surface features with statistics on land use and crop and livestock management practices. The datasets provide valuable, location-specific information on the overall environmental risks and conditions in agriculture across Canada and how these change over time. This dataset series collects AEI data that is related to geographic features and can be represented on a map. Other types of AEI data are not included. The datasets can be organized into the following major groups: farm land management, soil health, water quality, air quality, and food and beverage industry (not included). Farm land management datasets: soil cover, wildlife habitat, and farm land management (not included). Soil health datasets: soil erosion, soil organic matter, trace elements, and soil salinity. Water quality datasets: nitrogen, phosphorus, coliforms, and pesticides. Air quality datasets: greenhouse gases, ammonia, particulate matter. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e996d9be-6a3b-4059-9afc-17dc68385f05

The National Ecological Framework for Canada provides a consistent, national spatial framework that allows various ecosystems to be described, monitored and reported on. It provides standard ecological units that allow different jurisdictions and disciplines to use common communication and reporting, and a common ground to report on the state of the environment and the sustainability of ecosystems in Canada. The framework was developed between 1991 and 1999 by the Ecosystems Science Directorate, Environment Canada and the Center for Land and Biological Resources Research, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Over 100 federal and provincial agencies, non-governmental organizations and private sector companies contributed to its development. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/3ef8e8a9-8d05-4fea-a8bf-7f5023d2b6e1

The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Watersheds Project level series supplies a number of watershed and watershed related datasets for the Prairie Provinces. The levels are greater or smaller assemblages of hydrometric areas, or the components defining them. The Project is organized by the hydrometric gauging station which are sourced from Environment Canada, the United States and Canadian provinces. Additional stations were generated to address structural issues, like river confluences or lake inlets. Collectively, they are referred to as the gauging stations, or simply, the stations. The drainage area that each station monitors, between itself and one or more of its upstream neighbours, is called an 'incremental gross drainage area'. The incremental gross drainage areas are collected into larger or smaller groupings based on size or defined interest to generate the various 'levels'of the series. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/c20d97e7-60d8-4df8-8611-4d499a796493

The "Soils of Canada, Derived" national scale thematic datasets display the distribution and areal extent of soil attributes such as drainage, texture of parent material, kind of material, and classification of soils in terms of provincial Detailed Soil Surveys (DDS) polygons, Soil Landscape Polygons (SLCs), Soil Order and Great Group. The relief and associated slopes of the Canadian landscape are depicted on the local surface form thematic dataset. The purpose of the "Soils of Canada, Derived" series is to facilitate the cartographic display and basic queries of the Soil Landscapes of Canada at a national scale. For more detailed or sophisticated analysis, users should investigate the full "Soil Landscapes of Canada" product. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/8f496e3f-1e54-4dbb-a501-a91eccf616b8

Soil and drainage and soil slope maps for Canada (SLC, 1:1,000,000), and detailed soil drainage and soil slope maps for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Soil zones of the prairies is also included as a separate layer.

The Census of Agriculture is disseminated by Statistics Canada's standard geographic units (boundaries). Since these census units do not reflect or correspond with biophysical landscape units (such as ecological regions, soil landscapes or drainage areas), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in collaboration with Statistics Canada's Agriculture Division, have developed a process for interpolating (reallocating or proportioning) Census of Agriculture information from census polygon-based units to biophysical polygon-based units. In the "Interpolated census of agriculture", suppression confidentiality procedures were applied by Statistics Canada to the custom tabulations to prevent the possibility of associating statistical data with any specific identifiable agricultural operation or individual. Confidentiality flags are denoted where "-1" appears in data cell. This indicates information has been suppressed by Statistics Canada to protect confidentiality. Null values/cells simply indicate no data is reported. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1dee8513-5c73-43b6-9446-25f7b985cd00

The "Prairie Agricultural Landscapes (PAL)" datasets identify areas of the agricultural portions of the Canadian Prairies with similar land and water resources, land use and farming practices. They are represented by vector polygons. Based on selected attributes from the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) and the 1996 Census of Agriculture, the Prairies were classified into 13 (thirteen) classes of Land Practices Group and five (5) Major Land Practices Groups. Typical attributes used to define the Land Practice Groups include: land in pasture, land in summerfallow, crop mixture, farm size and the level of chemical and fertilizer inputs. The five (5) Major Groups were devised to help better understand the relationships between the groups. For more information, visit: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/0b2303be-ef05-49a8-8082-44a3eabcfa57

In 2010 the Earth Observation Team of the Science and Technology Branch (STB) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) continued the process of generating annual crop inventory digital maps using satellite imagery. Focusing on the Prairie Provinces, a Decision Tree (DT) based methodology was applied using both optical (AWiFS, Landsat-5, DMC) and radar (RADARSAT-2) based satellite imagery, and having a final spatial resolution of 56m. Methods were also developed to enhance the optical classification with RADARSAT-2 imagery, addressing issues associated with cloud cover. In conjunction with satellite acquisitions, ground-truth information was provided by provincial crop insurance companies and point observations from our regional AAFC colleagues. The overall process for Crop Inventory Map includes: satellite data acquisition; field data acquisition for classification training and accuracy assessment; and, operational implementation of the classification methodology. For more information, visit: http://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/6dc5170d-4167-47e4-b80a-93ed2b47f023