Great Lakes Straits of Mackinac 2019 ESI Benthic Polygons

GL_Mackinac 2019 ESI BENTHIC Polygons is a geospatial dataset from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It contains vector polygons representing submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) for the Straits of Mackinac area, including parts of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The data characterizes biological resources by their sensitivity to oil spills and includes associated tables for species abundance, seasonality, and life history.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil spill sensitivity for benthic habitats based on the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework.
• Mapping the distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Straits of Mackinac.
• Analyzing species-specific abundance and seasonality for coastal resource management.
• Integrating biological resource data with shoreline habitat and human-use layers for comprehensive environmental assessment.

Strengths

• Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for characterizing sensitivity to oil spills.
• Includes associated data tables with species-specific attributes like abundance and seasonality.
• Spatial coverage includes the Straits of Mackinac and adjacent portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in PDF format, which is not ideal for direct geospatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely collected through environmental surveys and GIS compilation for the ESI program.

Time Range

2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:28:31.193354; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Straits of Mackinac, nearby portions of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and adjacent lands and waters in northern Michigan.