NCCOS Assessment: Modeled Distribution of sand shoals of the Gulf of Mexico and US Atlantic Coast (NCEI Accession 0221906)

The sand shoals (modeled) polygons represent the hypothesized distribution of sand shoals of the Gulf of Mexico and US Atlantic Coast based on seafloor characteristics and distance to shoreline variables. Defined by Rutecki et al. (2014), a sand shoal is "a natural, underwater ridge, bank, or bar consisting of, or covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, resulting in shallower water depths than surrounding areas." In the dataset, attributes characterize shoals with a classification scheme developed with a basis in the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS).

（经建模的）沙脊多边形数据集，基于海底特征与离岸距离变量，刻画了墨西哥湾与美国大西洋沿岸沙脊（sand shoal）的假设分布范围。鲁特茨基等人（Rutecki et al., 2014）将沙脊定义为："由沙子或其他松散物质构成、或被其覆盖的天然水下山脊、浅滩或沙洲，相较于周边水域，该区域水深更浅"。本数据集所包含的属性，依托《海岸与海洋生态分类标准》（Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard, CMECS）开发的分类体系，对沙脊进行特征表征。