Global Distributions of Common UK Rocky Shore Species as Polygon Shapefiles

Global distributions of common intertidal species found in the UK are provided as ESRI polygon shapefiles. The shapefiles were produced to determine thermal affinities and thermal range widths from the range of temperatures found within the geographical range of each species. The data was compiled by Michael T. Burrows from literature sources.

Use Cases

• Modeling species thermal niches based on the temperature ranges within their reported geographical distributions.
• Analyzing biogeographic patterns of common UK intertidal species based on polygon range maps.
• Validating species occurrence records from literature against synthesized global distribution polygons.

Strengths

• Data is provided in a standard geospatial format (ESRI shapefiles) with a defined coordinate system (WGS 84).
• Includes a documented list of the literature sources used to produce the distribution polygons.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Filenames may use outdated species synonyms, requiring careful taxonomic reconciliation.

Provenance

Source

Michael T. Burrows

Collection Method

Polygons were compiled from species occurrence locations reported in the scientific literature.

Geography

Global, with a focus on species common to UK rocky shores.