St. Marys River Terrestrial Mammal Sensitivity Data for Oil Spill Response

Vector polygons represent sensitive biological resource data for terrestrial mammals, specifically the Canada lynx, in the St. Marys River. The data characterize wildlife by their sensitivity to spilled oil and are part of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) for the Great Lakes St. Marys River System. This data set was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on terrestrial mammal habitats based on sensitivity classifications.
• Planning coastal zone management and conservation strategies based on species-specific abundance and seasonality data.
• Integrating biological resource data with shoreline habitat and human-use layers for comprehensive environmental risk assessment.

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, seasonality, and life history.
• Spatial coverage is clearly defined for the St. Marys River from Lake Superior to Lake Huron.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary file format is PDF, which may complicate direct geospatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely gathered through field surveys, biological assessments, and spatial mapping for the ESI program.

Time Range

2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:23:54.802738; freshness should be verified.

Geography

St. Marys River at the southern portion of Lake Superior to the headwaters of Lake Huron, Michigan.