Sensitive biological resource data for bats, northern river otter, and small mammals in Lake Michigan. Vector polygons represent terrestrial mammal distribution, designed to be used with relational tables containing species-specific abundance, seasonality, and life history. This data set comprises a portion of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for Lake Michigan, characterizing coastal environments by their sensitivity to spilled oil.
Use Cases
- Modeling oil spill impact zones based on terrestrial mammal distribution polygons.
- Assessing seasonal wildlife vulnerability based on stored species seasonality information.
- Planning coastal conservation efforts based on biological resource sensitivity maps.
- Integrating species life history data with spatial layers for habitat analysis.
Strengths
- Data is part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill planning.
- Includes relational tables with species-specific attributes like abundance and seasonality.
- Spatial data is provided as vector polygons for precise distribution mapping.
- Produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an authoritative source.
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 description mentions PDF as the file format, which may limit direct machine-readability for spatial analysis.
Provenance
- Source
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
- Collection Method
- Likely compiled for environmental sensitivity mapping and oil spill response planning.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-13 22:22:04.754870; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Lake Michigan