Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment (NAMERA)
Benthic data
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment data. Includes: Bathymetry, Benthic Habitats, Benthic Sediment, Ecological Marine Units, Seabed Forms, and Ecoregional Boundaries.
Coastal Habitat
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregion Assessment data. Includes: Coastal Habitat, Coastal Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS), Shoreline Units - represents a parsing tool to help compare and contrast geographies with the understanding that boundary changes, or splitting/lumping of areas may be desirable when developing conservation approaches at more localized geographies, Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) - provides insight into the relative potential of coastal change due to future sea-level rise, and Eelgrass.
Large Pelagic Fish
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment data. Includes: Species richness of large pelagic fish - The richness of target species values were calculated to outline the diversity of the species in each ten minute square. The essential fish habitat (EFH) metrics were developed to understand how much of the region is considered EFH and to identify points were EFH for the target species overlapped. The persistence score identifies which target species were observed in the same ten minute square over time. The days fished metrics were calculated to understand the distribution of gillnet, longline, and bottom longline fishing trips.
Marine Diadromous Fish
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregion Assessment data. Includes: Seasonal fish trends and abundance; The Trend in Abundance Metric was developed to address the following question concerning the distribution of specific fish species relative to places in the North Atlantic Marine Ecoregion: Where in the ecoregion has the abundance been increasing or decreasing? (trends). And weighted persistence; The Weighted Persistence metric was developed to address the following questions concerning the distribution of specific fish species relative to places in the North Atlantic Marine Ecoregion: Where in the ecoregion has the species been consistently found over time? (persistence) Where in the ecoregion is the species consistently found in high abundances? (persistence weighted by abundance).
Physical Oceanography
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment data. Includes: Seasonal data on Zooplankton - biomass data were obtained from the COPEPOD database (NOAA) for 1977-2007, Chlorophyll - measured to determine phytoplankton concentration, Sea Surface Temperature - data were extracted from three dimensional climatologies representing 28 years from 1980 - 2007, averaged, and interpolated with ordinary kriging to produce a smooth surface, and Stratification - data helps describe the physical environment of the water column near the surface. These data help to understand the seasonal patterns of mixing and stratification that help to determine areas of high productivity and benthic-pelagic coupling.
Sea Turtles and Marine Mammals: Sightings Per Unit Effort
The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Atlantic Marine Ecoregional Assessment data. Includes: Point nesting data, Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) importance and nesting areas and sightings per unit effort (SPUE) for the three species of turtles - Green sea turtle, Leatherback turtle, and Loggerhead turtle. And Marine Mammal data: assessed, combined and converted from seasonal species sightings into 10-minute squares. Individual grids were then multiplied by 1000 and divided by seasonal effort grids previously generated by the U.S. Navy. The resulting sightings per unit effort (SPUE) grids were used to identify important areas within the Ecoregion for each species.
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