GL St. Lawrence River 2021 ESI: Terrestrial Mammal Sensitivity Polygons

Vector polygons represent sensitive biological resource data for terrestrial mammals, specifically threatened and endangered bats, in the St. Lawrence River. The study area includes the river from the headwaters of Lake Ontario to the western portion of L'Ile-Saint-Regis Island. This data set is a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River, characterizing wildlife sensitivity to spilled oil.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil spill sensitivity for threatened and endangered bat species based on species-specific attributes.
• Planning coastal resource protection and response strategies based on spatial biological resource data.
• Integrating terrestrial mammal habitat data with other ESI components (shoreline habitats, human-use resources) for environmental risk assessment.

Strengths

• Data is part of the standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill response.
• Includes associated data tables with species-specific abundance, seasonality, status, and life history information.
• Spatial coverage is clearly defined from Lake Ontario to L'Ile-Saint-Regis Island.

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 the specified study area.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Time Range

2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:21:07.790830; freshness should be verified.

Geography

St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to L'Ile-Saint-Regis Island (CA)