Data for calculating population, collision and displacement vulnerability among marine birds of the California Current System associated with offshore wind energy infrastructure (ver. 2.0, June 2017)

The U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center (USGS-WERC) was requested by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to create a database for marine birds of the California Current System (CCS) that would allow quantification and species ranking regarding vulnerability to offshore wind energy infrastructure (OWEI). This was needed so that resource managers could evaluate potential impacts associated with siting and construction of OWEI within the California Current System section of the Pacific Offshore Continental Shelf, including California, Oregon, and Washington. Along with its accompanying Open File Report (OFR), this comprehensive database can be used (and modified or updated) to quantify...

Categories: Data Release - Revised; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Biota, California, California Current System, Environment, Ocean wind energy, All tags... Oregon, Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, Renewable energy, Seabirds, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Vulnerability assessment, Washington, Fewer tags

Bird Density and Marine Mammal Counts Based on 7700 Meter Bins in Southern California, 1999-2002

Tracklines and associated observations were mapped and analyzed using ArcMap (ESRI, Redlands, CA). GPS data were recorded in NAD27 map datum and projected to an USGS Albers Equal Area Conic map projection for presentation and subsequent density analyses. Concatenated GPS and observation data were then used to generate point and line coverages in ArcMap (ESRI, Redlands, CA). We designed a custom analytic tool using ArcMap Model Builder that allows for the construction and export of user-specified and effort-adjusted spatial binning of species observations along continuous trackines. For the purposes of this report, we calculated seabird density estimates and marine mammal counts along continuous 3.0-kilometer and...

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: At-sea suvey, California Current System, Channel Islands, Marine Bird, marine mammals, All tags... seabird, southern California, southern California Bight, Fewer tags

North Pacific Nearshore Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Access Databases 09/1981-12/2009

The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of the nearshore region of the North Pacific show temperature ranges in degrees C using points whose locations correspond to the centroids of AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 monthly, global, 4 km data set (PFSST V50). The pathfinder rasters are available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC), hosted by NASA JPL. The data points in this dataset lie within a 20 km buffer from the GSHHS (Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline) coastline. The GSHHS vector data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Furthermore, each point in the SST dataset is categorized by the ecoregion in which it is located. This...

Categories: Data; Tags: AVHRR, Aleutian, Asian Pacific, BC, Baja, All tags... British Columbia, CA, California, California Current System, Canada, China, East Asia, Gulf of Alaska, Japan, Kamchatka, Korea, Kuroshio, National CASC, North America, North Pacific, OR, Oregon, Oyashio, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast, Russia, SST, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Vancouver, WA, Washington, Water, Coasts and Ice, Yellow Sea, average, biota, coast, coast, ecoregion, global, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, marine, mean, ocean, oceans, point, remote sensing, satellite, sea surface, shore, temperature, thermal, Fewer tags

At-Sea Distribution and Abundance of Seabirds and Marine Mammals off Southern California GIS Resource Database

Background - Interest in developing alternative sources of renewable energy to reduce dependence on oil has increased in recent years. Some sources of renewable energy being considered will include power generation infrastructure and support activities located within continental shelf waters, and potentially within deeper waters off the U.S. Pacific coast and beyond state waters (i.e., outside three nautical miles). Currently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is considering renewable energy proposals off the coast of Oregon, California, and Hawaii. From 1999–2002, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Humboldt State University (HSU) worked with BOEM (formely known as the Minerals Management Service,...

Tags: At-sea survey, California Current System, Marine Bird, Marine Mammal, Seabird, All tags... USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), southern California Bight, Fewer tags

North Pacific Nearshore Sea Surface Temperature (SST) csv format (1981-2009)

The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of the nearshore region of the North Pacific show temperature ranges in degrees C using points whose locations correspond to the centroids of AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 monthly, global, 4 km data set (PFSST V50). The pathfinder rasters are available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC), hosted by NASA JPL. The data points in this dataset lie within a 20 km buffer from the GSHHS (Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline) coastline. The GSHHS vector data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Furthermore, each point in the SST dataset is categorized by the ecoregion in which it is located. This...

Categories: Data; Tags: 4 km, AVHRR, Aleutian, Asian Pacific, BC, All tags... Baja, British Columbia, CA, California, California Current System, Canada, China, East Asia, Gulf of Alaska, Japan, Kamchatka, Korea, Kuroshio, National CASC, North America, North Pacific, OR, Oregon, Oyashio, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast, Pathfinder, Russia, SST, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Vancouver, WA, Washington, Water, Coasts and Ice, Yellow Sea, biota, coast, csv, ecoregion, global, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, marine, oceans, oceans, point, remote sensing, satellite, sea surface, table, tabular, temperature, text, thermal, Fewer tags

North Pacific Nearshore Sea Surface Temperature (SST) shapefile format (1981-2009)

The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of the nearshore region of the North Pacific show temperature ranges in degrees C using points whose locations correspond to the centroids of AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 monthly, global, 4 km data set (PFSST V50). The pathfinder rasters are available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC), hosted by NASA JPL. The data points in this dataset lie within a 20 km buffer from the GSHHS (Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline) coastline. The GSHHS vector data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Furthermore, each point in the SST dataset is categorized by the ecoregion in which it is located. This...

Categories: Data; Tags: 4 km, AVHRR, Aleutian, Asian Pacific, BC, All tags... Baja, British Columbia, CA, California, California Current System, Canada, China, East Asia, GIS, Gulf of Alaska, Japan, Kamchatka, Korea, Kuroshio, National CASC, North America, North Pacific, OR, Oregon, Oyashio, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast, Pathfinder, Russia, SST, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Vancouver, WA, Washington, Water, Coasts and Ice, Yellow Sea, biota, coast, ecoregion, global, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, marine, ocean, oceans, point, remote sensing, satellite, sea surface, shapefile, temperature, thermal, vector, Fewer tags

North Pacific Nearshore Sea Surface Temperature (SST) ESRI GRID format (1981-2009)

The Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of the nearshore region of the North Pacific show temperature ranges in degrees C using points whose locations correspond to the centroids of AVHRR Pathfinder version 5 monthly, global, 4 km data set (PFSST V50). The pathfinder rasters are available from the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC), hosted by NASA JPL. The grid cells in this dataset lie within a 20 km buffer from the GSHHS (Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline) coastline. The GSHHS vector data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). These data have been QA'd in that we have selected only data values with associated quality flags of...

Categories: Data; Tags: AVHRR, Aleutian, Asian Pacific, BC, British Columbia, All tags... CA, California, California Current System, Canada, China, East Asia, GIS, Gulf of Alaska, Japan, Kamchatka, Korea, Kuroshio, National CASC, North America, North Pacific, OR, Oregon, Oyashio, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast, Russia, SST, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Vancouver, WA, Washington, Water, Coasts and Ice, Yellow Sea, average SST, biota, cell, climate, coast, ecoregion, global, grid, imageryBaseMapsEarthCover, marine, mean SST, month, monthly mean, oceans, pixel, raster, remote sensing, satellite, sea surface, temperature, thermal, Fewer tags

Collision vulnerability of marine birds within the California Current System

Four metrics were used to determine Collision Vulnerability: Diurnal and nocturnal flight activity, flight-height (defined as time spent in rotor sweep zone), and macro-avoidance. Nocturnal flight activity (NFA) and diurnal flight activity (DFA)—Nocturnal and diurnal flight activity can influence the risk of collision; therefore, we used available information to estimate the amount of time each species spent flying during night and during day. Time spent in the rotor sweep zone (RSZt)— the percentage of time each species spends flying at the same height as wind turbine blades (as opposed to above or below the sweeping zone of the blades) will influence collision vulnerability. Based on flight-height analyses and...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Biota, California, California Current System, Environment, Ocean wind energy, All tags... Oregon, Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, Renewable energy, Seabirds, Vulnerability assessment, Washington, Fewer tags

At-Sea Aerial Survey GPS Points in Southern California, 1999-2002

This file contains the flight trackline Global Positioning System (GPS) point data from the aerial surveys. Surveys were flown at 60 meters (200 feet) above sea level at 160 kilometers per hour (90 knots) ground speed. The surveys were flown in a high-winged, twin engine Partenavia PN 68 Observer aircraft following methods developed for seabirds by Briggs et al. (1987). GPS points were recorded every five seconds to allow adequate spatial coverage of the trackline (222 meters is traversed every five seconds at the survey speed of 160 kilometers per hour) and to limit the size of the resulting data files. Data was collected using a laptop computer running the program dLOG (R.G. Ford Consulting, Inc.) that allowed...

Categories: Data; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, Shapefile; Tags: California Current System, Channel Islands, Marine Bird, Marine Mammal, Seabird, All tags... at-sea survey, southern California Bight, Fewer tags

Displacement vulnerability of marine birds within the California Current System

Two metrics were used to determine Collision Vulnerability: Macro-avoidance and habitat flexibility. Macro-avoidance (MA)—The macro-avoidance values for species indicate the species-specific probability of avoidance for birds associated with wind power infrastructure. For each species, we derived this value from observed macro-avoidance rates (via human observation and radar) at existing offshore wind power sites. In cases where species-specific data were not available, we used information from similar taxa. Habitat Flexibility (HF)—the degree to which a species shows habitat-specific feeding strategies (habitat flexibility) influences its vulnerability for displacement by offshore infrastructure. We evaluated literature...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Biota, California, California Current System, Environment, Ocean wind energy, All tags... Oregon, Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, Renewable energy, Seabirds, Vulnerability assessment, Washington, Fewer tags

Population vulnerability of marine birds within the California Current System

Six metrics were used to determine Population Vulnerability: global population size, annual occurrence in the California Current System (CCS), percent of the population present in the CCS, threat status, breeding score, and annual adult survival. Global Population size (POP)—to determine population size estimates for each species we gathered information tabulated by American Bird Conservancy, Birdlife International, and other primary sources. Proportion of Population in CCS (CCSpop)—for each species, we generated the population size within the CCS by averaging region-wide population estimates, or by combining state estimates for California, Oregon, and Washington for each species (if estimates were not available...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Biota, California, California Current System, Environment, Ocean wind energy, All tags... Oregon, Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, Renewable energy, Seabirds, Vulnerability, Washington, Fewer tags