17 Species Distribution Indicators
Description: Species mean depth, along-shelf distance, and distance to coastline
Indicator family:
Contributor(s): Kevin Friedland, Brandon Beltz
Affiliations: NEFSC
17.1 Introduction to Indicator
Distribution shifts for a suite of 48 commercially or ecologically important fish species were evaluated using center of gravity metrics based on NEFSC bottom trawl survey data.
Along-shelf distance is a metric for quantifying the distribution of a species through time along the axis of the US Northeast Continental Shelf, which extends northeastward from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Once mean distance is found, depth of occurrence and distance to coastline can be calculated for each species’ positional center.
17.2 Key Results and Visualizations
The center of distribution for a suite of 48 commercially or ecologically important fish species along the entire Northeast Shelf continues to show movement towards the northeast and generally into deeper water.
17.4 Implications
Temperature change is a major driver of changing fish distributions [33].
17.5 Get the data
Point of contact: Kevin Friedland, kevin.friedland@noaa.gov
ecodata name: ecodata::species_dist
Variable definitions
“along-shelf distance”
“depth”
“distance to coast”
“Latitude”
“Longitude”
Indicator Category:
17.7 Accessibility and Constraints
Contact Kevin Friedland, kevin.friedland@noaa.gov for data access
tech-doc link https://noaa-edab.github.io/tech-doc/species_dist.html