McHenry_etal_2016_Survey_Data

The data comes from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey conducted during the summer months of 2010-2013 along the coastal Gulf of Maine shelf. The survey aimed 1) to characterize the distribution and abundance of benthic megafauna with respect to near-shore abiotic conditions, 2) to develop spatially-explicit maps of ecological attributes of near-shore benthic assemblages, and 3) use such maps to inform the application of ecological principles when engaging in marine spatial planning. This file contains a data matrix of species abundances for the most dominantly observed species (i.e., greater than 5 observations), assemblage biomass, economic value, and shannon-weiner species diversity by site, along with values of associated summertime abiotic conditions (i.e.,mean transect depth, substrate type, water-mass position, bottom temperature, bottom current speed/direction, and bottom salinity). Depth and substrate type values were recorded from the ROV surveys, while the water-mass values were acquired from HYCOM GLBu0.08 4D model output via the Marine Geo-spatial Ecology Toolbox in ArcGIS 10.3. See McHenry et al. 2016 for a full description the survey design, data processing methods, and analytical approaches used by this study.