Ecologically Significant Areas in the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf

2007-2012 research identifies ecological and biological significant areas (EBSA) in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The dataset evaluates six food chain groups—primary production, secondary production, meroplankton, benthic invertebrates, demersal fishes, and pelagic fishes—against five criteria: uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequence, resilience, and naturalness. It was compiled by Fisheries and Oceans Canada from multiple scientific advisory documents.

Use Cases

• Map the distribution of primary production and secondary production groups to identify high-productivity zones for marine spatial planning.
• Analyze the uniqueness and naturalness criteria scores across benthic invertebrate and demersal fish areas to prioritize conservation efforts.
• Assess resilience and fitness consequence rankings for pelagic fish and meroplankton groups to model ecosystem vulnerability to anthropogenic disturbance.

Strengths

• Data is derived from multiple peer-reviewed scientific advisory documents published by Fisheries and Oceans Canada between 2007 and 2012.
• Covers six distinct and ecologically critical food chain groups, providing a multi-trophic perspective.
• Each area is evaluated using five standardized ecological criteria, enabling consistent comparative analysis.

Limitations

• The underlying research and data collection occurred over a decade ago (2007-2012), which may not reflect current ecological conditions.
• Specific data dimensions like row count, column count, and spatial resolution are not provided in the input, limiting an assessment of scale and granularity.
• As a synthesis of multiple studies, the dataset may inherit inconsistencies in the original sampling methodologies.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, compiled from multiple DFO Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Research Documents.

Collection Method

Synthesis of scientific studies identifying areas based on ecological criteria applied to six food chain groups.

Time Range

Research period 2007-2012.

Freshness

The platform record was last updated in March 2026, but the core scientific data is from 2007-2012.

Geography

Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada.