Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring: 80 Canadian Sites Surveyed 2011-2025

80 coastal wetland sites on the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario were surveyed for fish, vegetation, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and water quality from 2011 to 2025. The data includes site coordinates and survey years, produced by the Canadian Wildlife Service as part of the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program. This program aims to assess the condition of over 1000 Great Lakes coastal wetlands to inform conservation and management.

Use Cases

• Model wetland ecological condition based on surveyed biota and water quality data.
• Analyze spatial distribution and trends of biodiversity across 80 monitored sites.
• Assess habitat quality for conservation planning using standardized long-term monitoring data.
• Correlate fish, bird, anuran, and vegetation community data with environmental variables.

Strengths

• Data covers 80 specific wetland sites with spatial coordinates, enabling geospatial analysis.
• Surveys span from 2011 to 2025, providing a multi-year time series for long-term assessment.
• Program uses standardized methods for fish, birds, anurans, vegetation, macroinvertebrates, and water quality.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data reflects a geographic bias, focusing primarily on the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.

Provenance

Source

Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment and Climate Change Canada

Collection Method

Field surveys of fish, vegetation, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and water quality.

Time Range

2011 to 2025

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-19 21:52:23.700020; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Lakes basin, primarily Canadian shore of Lake Ontario