Lake Ontario 2023 ESI Birds: Nesting and Concentration Areas

GL_LAKE_ONTARIO_2023 ESI BIRDS Polygons are part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Environmental Sensitivity Index data for Lake Ontario. The data set contains vector polygons representing sensitive biological resource data for diving birds, gulls, terns, passerines, raptors, shorebirds, wading birds, and waterfowl. It includes information on species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, and life history for bird nesting, migratory staging, wintering sites, and other concentration areas.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil spill sensitivity for coastal bird habitats based on polygon location and species data.
• Analyzing seasonal bird concentration areas for conservation planning based on migratory staging and wintering site information.
• Mapping nesting sites for specific bird groups like raptors or waterfowl based on the spatial data layer.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill response.
• Includes associated tables with species-specific attributes like abundance and seasonality.
• Covers a defined study area including specific islands and major bays in the U.S. portion of Lake Ontario.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to datagov, focusing only on the U.S. portion of the lake.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely gathered through field surveys and biological assessments for environmental sensitivity mapping.

Time Range

2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:21:11.350414; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States portion of Lake Ontario, including specific islands and bays in New York.