feature (id #5):
Benthic Classes

category physical
description Classification of the sea floor based on landscape features, substrate, and depth.
atlas page view PDF (4.3 MB)
(Find in our 2010 printed atlas on page 7.)
metadata view online
feature GIS data download ZIP of shapefiles (25.4 MB)
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Marxan-ready data download ZIP of shapefiles (40.4 MB)

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4 comments about this feature

  • Hello,

    We’re trying to use this layer to discern areas of preferable rockfish habitat, however are not clear on what the polygon values (#’s) correlate to the three categories of physical behtic classes (landscape features, depth ranges and substrate types). Without this information, it’s not clear to us which characteristics are found in each polygon.

    Thanks

    Jenna

    reply to this comment

    • Hi Jenna,
      In the ‘supplemental information’ field of the metadata there is a table showing how the values in the ‘habClass’ field correlate to the depth class, substrate, and benthic position index information. I find the table easier to work with if you view the XML version through ArcCatalog because the formatting is somewhat lost in the HTML version. The values use the following code:

      depth class (1000s) | substrate (10s) | benthic position index (1s)
      Depth
      < -200m 4000 -200 - -50m 3000 -50 - -20m 2000 -20 - 0m 1000 Substrate M = Mud 10 S = Sand 20 H = Hard 30 U = Unknown 90 BPI 1 Ridge 2 Depression 3 Flat 4 Slope Hopefully that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers, Carrie

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for data layer: Benthic Classes

custodian — Parks Canada: Greg MacMillan

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