Functional Traits Matrix for St. Lawrence Estuary Fish and Invertebrates, 2014-2023

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides a functional trait matrix for 103 fish and 178 invertebrate taxa sampled in the annual bottom trawl survey of the Estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. The matrix includes traits like trophic guild, mobility, habitat provision, longevity, size at maturity, and empirical metrics from 2014 to 2023. It was created from a literature review, expert knowledge, and survey data collected since 1990, with a report published in 2025.

Use Cases

• Classifying species into trophic guilds based on fuzzy coding mentioned in the description
• Modeling community structure changes based on mobility and habitat provision traits
• Developing sustainability indicators using empirical data on occurrence, density, and condition from 2014-2023
• Assessing commercial species vulnerability using compiled longevity and size at maturity data

Strengths

• Covers 281 total taxa (103 fish, 178 invertebrates)
• Integrates over twenty years of expert knowledge and survey data since 1990
• Includes a decade of empirical metrics (2014-2023) for average occurrence, density, size, and condition

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Literature review, expert knowledge, and empirical data from the annual ecosystem bottom trawl survey

Time Range

Survey data since 1990; empirical metrics cover 2014 to 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-13 17:01:16.547816; freshness should be verified

Geography

Estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada