Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) Project Boundaries (STE_SEI_PROJECT_BOUNDARIES_SVW) contain boundaries (study areas) and attributes describing each SEI project (project level metadata), and includes links to the locations of other data associated with the project (e.g. reports, polygon datasets, plot files). This layer is derived from the [STE_TEI_PROJECT_BOUNDARIES_SP](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/1313fac7-2ea1-4c6b-995b-bd421b7ec3c6) layer by filtering on the PROJECT_TYPE attribute. Project types include: SEI, TEMSEI, TEMSET, SEIWHR and NEMSEI. SEI project boundaries should be used in conjunction with SEI detailed inventory polygons which identify and map rare and fragile terrestrial ecosystems in a given area for the purpose of encouraging land-use decisions that will ensure the continued integrity of these ecosystems. SEI inventory polygons with full Resources Information Standards Committee (RISC) attributes can be accessed through the [Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Data Distribution Packages](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/8fd15e4e-e7b1-4566-81d1-1ff8947bfd46). SEI inventory polygons with simplified and amalgamated (concatenated) RISC attributes can be accessed through the [Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) Detailed Polygons with Short Attribute Table Spatial View](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/b00fd09f-ebe1-4b52-9717-6ef9c243d52e). **Current version**: v12 (2026-06-22)

Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) Detailed Polygons (STE_SEI_ATTRIBUTE_POLYS_SVW) contains SEI inventory polygons with key and amalgamated (concatenated) attributes derived from the Resource Inventory Standards Committee (RISC) standard attributes. This layer is derived from the [STE_TEI_ATTRIBUTE_POLYS_SP](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/f2cd2cc3-5f58-481c-bf3c-64934acb6fad) layer by filtering on the PROJECT_TYPE attribute. Project types include: SEI, TEMSEI, TEMSET, SEIWHR and NEMSEI. SEI identifies and maps rare and fragile terrestrial ecosystems. Ecosystems mapped may include (but are not limited to) older forests, woodlands, coastal bluffs, herbaceous and sparsely vegetated ecosystems, grasslands, riparian ecosystems and wetlands. SEI methods include manual air photo interpretation or theming of other Ecosystem Mapping, each supported by selective field checking. SEI Detailed Polygons should be used in conjunction with [SEI Project Boundaries](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/5a5680fa-29e0-4ad2-b2ce-ff0dabc1f666) which contain boundaries (study areas) and attributes describing each project (project level metadata), plus links to the locations of other data associated with the project (e.g., reports, polygon datasets, plotfiles, legends). SEI inventory polygons with full RISC attributes can be accessed through the [Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) Data Distribution Packages](https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/8fd15e4e-e7b1-4566-81d1-1ff8947bfd46). **Current version**: v12 (2026-06-22)

STE_TEI_ATTRIBUTE_POLYS_SP contains Terrestrial Ecosystem Information (TEI) polygons with key and amalgamated (concatenated) attributes derived from the RISC (Resource Inventory Standards Committee) standard attributes. These describe the physical and biological characteristics of ecosystems at a landscape level. TEI currently includes Terrestrial Ecosystem Mapping (TEM), Predictive Ecosystem Mapping (PEM), Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI), Terrain Mapping (TER), Wetland Mapping (WET) and Soil Mapping (SOIL). Mapping methods include manual air photo interpretation and modeling supported by limited field checking. **Current version**: v12 (2026-06-22)

The B.C. Conservation Data Centre spatial layer that displays a generalised area that masks the precise locations of secured occurrences of species and ecosystems at risk. These are masked for public viewing and download. The occurrences may be secured due to the species or ecosystems being susceptible to persecution or harm, or for proprietary reasons. For information or to obtain details about Masked Occurrence Records, please contact the CDC at cdcdata@gov.bc.ca and provide projects details including precise location information and activities expected to occur on site or other reasons for requiring the information. Release of details of secured occurrences is subject to the signing of a Confidentiality and Non-reproduction Agreement and a demonstrated "need-to-know".

Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) are areas within Canada's oceans that have been identified through formal scientific assessments as having special biological or ecological significance when compared with the surrounding marine ecosystem.Failure to define an area as an EBSA does not mean that it is unimportant ecologically. All areas serve ecological functions to some extent and require sustainable management. Rather, areas identified as EBSAs should be viewed as the most important areas where, with existing knowledge, regulators and marine users should be particularly risk averse to ensure ecosystems remain healthy and productive.Why are EBSAs identified?EBSA information is used to inform marine planning, including environmental assessment and the siting of marine-based activities, by:- Informing and guiding project-specific or regional environmental assessments;- Informing and guiding industries and regulators in their planning and operations, for example: EBSAs have been acknowledged and referred to (often as "Special Areas" or "Potentially Sensitive Areas") in oil and gas related assessments;- EBSA information has been provided to proponents of submarine cable projects to be used for route planning purposes;- Informing and guiding Integrated Oceans Management (IOM) process within five Large Ocean Management Areas (LOMAs) and twelve marine bioregions;- Serving as a basis for the identification of Areas of Interest (AOIs) and of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) (individually and in the context of planning bioregional networks of MPAs).How are EBSAs identified?The process used to identify EBSAs is generally comprised of two phases. The first phase involves compiling scientific data and knowledge of a marine area's ecosystems - notably fish species, marine mammals, sea birds, marine flora, marine productivity, physical and chemical conditions and geology. "Knowledge" includes experiential knowledge of long-time uses of the areas. In some cases (e.g., in the Arctic), substantial efforts are taken to collect traditional knowledge on ecosystems and environmental conditions from community members, fish harvests, hunters and individuals whose knowledge of the study area complement often helps fill scientific data gaps.In the second phase, the available information for a marine area (e.g. a bioregion) is assessed against five nationally-established science-based criteria including:- Uniqueness: How distinct is the ecosystem of an area compared to surrounding ones?- Aggregation: Whether or not species populate or convene to the study area?- Fitness consequence: How critical the area is to the life history of the species that use it (e.g. is it a spawning or feeding ground)?- Naturalness: How pristine or disturbed by human activities is the study area?- Resilience: What is the ability of the ecosystem to bounce back if it is disturbed?Progress to date and next stepsEBSAs have been identified for large portions of Canada's Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as most of the Arctic oceans. EBSAs will continue to be identified in priority areas as resources become available to carry out the process. The boundaries or locations of existing EBSAs may be modified to reflect both new knowledge and changing environmental conditions.

The B.C. Conservation Data Centre’s spatial view of publicly available, known locations of species and ecological communities at risk. This spatial view is split into the "Publicly Available Occurrences" layer and "(Extirpated and Historical) Publicly Available Occurrences" layer. The Extirpated and Historical layer includes element occurrences that have a last observation date greater than 40 years ago and element occurrences that are extirpated due to general habitat loss or degradation of the environment in the area. Use the field ‘Rank Description’ to differentiate between Historical and Extirpated element occurrences in this layer. All element occurrences are polygons: the size of the polygon usually reflects the locational uncertainty associated with the source data, represented with varying sized circles. Some polygons may be larger to reflect the actual area covered by the element occurrence. The field "Representational Accuracy" is used to communicate how accurately the polygon reflects the actual area covered by the element. If you do not find an element occurrence in your area of interest, this means there are none currently mapped in the CDC database. The best way to verify whether an area contains a species or ecosystem at risk is to have do a detailed assessment of the property during the appropriate season.

A Fisheries Sensitive Watershed (FSW) is a mapped area with specific management objectives intended to guide development activities which may adversely impact important fish values . FSWs within this set of data are currently in the review and consultation stage of the area designation process. As FSWs are designated they will be moved into the [Approved Fisheries Sensitive Watersheds](http://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/fisheries-sensitive-watersheds) dataset and thus often this dataset is empty.

The Broad Ecosystem Inventory (BEI) Classification provides broad regional information about the distribution of ecosystems throughout the province and the value of these ecosystems to wildlife. This is done in order to facilitate the use of wildlife information in broad provincial and regional land and resource planning initiatives. Broad Ecosystem Units are mapped based on imagery of the provincial land base generally captured at a scale of 1:250,000. BEI mapping represents forest conditions from approximately 1995 to 2000. The BEI Classification was used to produce wildlife habitat capability and suitability mapping following Provincial Wildlife Habitat Ratings (WHR) Standards (Resource Inventory Committee 1999). Habitat classifications were based on BEI units. BEI units were evaluated and rated to determine the habitat potential (capability) and current habitat conditions (suitability) for selected dry forests and grassland birds within each seral stage within each Broad Ecosystem Unit (and related site modifier variation) within the framework of Ecosections and Biogeoclimatic Sub-zone/Variants for their ability to supply the species’ necessary life requisites. The data represented by the habitat capability and suitability maps for this project was obtained from a team consisting of a bird species expert, a habitat expert, and a data manager. A regional expert review was conducted in September 2002 involving Species at Risk Biologists, Habitat Biologists, and Wildlife Biologists from the Cariboo, Thompson, Okanagan Regions.

DFO has committed to establishing a representative network of Marine Conservation Areas collectively comprising 30% of the EEZ by 2030. The MCT 2.0 program was established in 2021 to help achieve this target and establish long-term monitoring within Canadian conservation areas. Information on the distribution of species within a protected area is essential for the management and monitoring of a site. Decisions made on zoning, risk assessment, activity approvals and management effectiveness all require information on the distribution and status of species. The Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy Bioregion spans the domain of the Maritimes Region, and within it there are 8 Marine Refuges (MR), 3 Marine Protected Areas (MPA), and 2 Areas of Interest (AOI). Environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a promising approach for biodiversity monitoring that has been gaining increased attention in the marine realm. Through sampling relatively small volumes of water (~3L), eDNA can capture of millions of fragments of eDNA on specialized filters that can then be sequenced to identify the species composition of an area. eDNA metabarcoding is based on the foundations of DNA barcoding, where species are identified solely by their unique DNA sequences. This method is relatively simple, efficient (with the ability to characterize both fish and invertebrate diversity), and non-invasive, meaning there is no disruption of sensitive benthic habitats or need to dissect tissue samples from captured fish and invertebrates. eDNA has been shown to be comparable to other biodiversity censusing techniques and has the potential to rapidly conduct biodiversity surveys over a relatively large area, such as the Eastern Shore Islands AOI. The DFO Maritimes summer multispecies trawl survey is one of the longest-running data series with applications in fisheries stock assessment, and one of the only sources of data for offshore MPA design and monitoring. In this project we pair eDNA samples collected within current and proposed conservation areas with trawl catch data to create a biodiversity and animal community monitoring time series for these areas. We use eDNA and trawl catch data as complementary tools, where trawl-based catch provides information on fish abundance, size distributions and sex, and eDNA provides information on genetic diversity and can detect cryptic and rare species. Cite this data as: Jeffery, N.W. Monitoring regional conservation areas using paired environmental DNA and research trawl surveys. Published: May 2026. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth NS.

Marine Protected Areas require comprehensive monitoring to ensure objectives are achieved; however, monitoring natural ecosystems at scale is challenged by the biodiversity it aims to measure. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding holds promise to address this monitoring challenge. We conducted paired sampling at 54 sites for fish and invertebrate assemblages in the Northwest Atlantic using groundfish trawls and eDNA metabarcoding of benthic seawater using four genetic markers (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and CO1). Compared to trawling, eDNA detected similar patterns of species turnover, larger estimates of gamma diversity, and smaller estimates of alpha diversity. A total of 63.6% (42/66) of fish species captured by trawling were detected by eDNA, along with an additional 26 species. Of the 24 missed detections by eDNA, 12 were inevitable as they lacked reference sequences. Excluding taxa assigned to higher than species level and those without a species name, 23.6% (17/72) of invertebrate species captured by trawling were detected by CO1, which detected an additional 98 species. We demonstrate that eDNA is capable of detecting patterns of community assemblage and species turnover in an offshore environment, emphasizing its strong potential for a non-invasive, comprehensive, and scalable tool for biodiversity monitoring supporting marine conservation programmes.Cite this data as: Jeffery, N., Rubidge, E., Abbott, C., Westfall, K., Stanley, R. (2024): Data of: eDNA metabarcoding enriches traditional trawl survey data for monitoring biodiversity in the marine environment.Published: August 2024. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/43a91ba7-8025-4330-88db-db14022d729d