Bay of Quinte Fish Habitat Suitability Maps for Coldwater Species, 1972-2011

1972-2011 habitat suitability maps for coldwater fish in the Bay of Quinte, Canada. Fisheries and Oceans Canada modeled juvenile and adult habitat using depth, vegetation, substrate, and temperature at a 3-meter resolution. Suitability is scaled from 0 to 1 and classified as very low, low, medium, or high.

Use Cases

• Modeling long-term habitat changes for coldwater fish species based on the 39-year temporal coverage.
• Assessing habitat suitability for conservation planning based on depth, vegetation, and substrate variables.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of fish habitat under high water level (75.4m ASL) conditions.
• Integrating temperature-algorithm-modified suitability scores into broader ecosystem models.

Strengths

• Modeled at a high 3-meter grid resolution for detailed spatial analysis.
• Covers a 39-year period (1972-2011) for temporal trend assessment.
• Suitability values are quantitatively scaled from 0 to 1 and classified into four discrete classes.
• Based on documented habitat and temperature associations for local fish species.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale processing.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Bay of Quinte study area.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Modeled using the Habitat Ecosystem Assessment Tool (HEAT), temperature algorithms, vegetation models, and water level input.

Time Range

1972-2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 08:33:05.352755; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Bay of Quinte Area of Concern, Canada