Science Advisory Report 2015/021
Eco-units and potential Priority Conservation Areas in the Western Arctic Bioregion
Summary
- The process to plan a network of marine protected areas in the Canadian Arctic was initiated in the Western Arctic Bioregion.
- A biogeographic classification system was developed to divide the Western Arctic Bioregion into types of habitats or ecosystems referred to as eco-units. The Bioregion was divided into 18 eco-units. Dominant ecosystem features, sea-ice data, bathymetric data, sills and water mass information were the primary inputs used to delineate the eco-units.
- The Western Arctic Bioregion currently contains 22 areas identified during previous science peer reviews as being ecologically and biologically significant.
- Proposed Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) were identified maximizing areas of overlap between the eco-units and Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) to capture areas representing all habitat or ecosystem types. Several existing conservation areas with marine components were included as PCAs and expansion of four others currently without marine components were proposed.
- There were 23 proposed PCAs identified in the Western Arctic Bioregion representing, on average, 13% of the area of eco-units and 35% of the area of EBSAs.
- The proposed PCAs captured all EBSAs and eco-units and in most cases, EBSAs and eco-units are represented in more than one PCA.
This Science Advisory Report is from the February 17-19, 2014 peer review on Developing a marine protected area network in the Western Arctic Bioregion – validating the process and identifying Priority Conservation Areas. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the DFO Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.
Accessibility Notice
This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.
- Date modified: