"Vegetation Zones of Canada: a Biogeoclimatic Perspective" maps Canadian geography in relation to gradients of regional climate, as expressed by potential vegetation on zonal sites. Compared to previous similar national-scale products, "Vegetation Zones of Canada" benefits from the work of provincial and territorial ecological classification programs over the last 30+ years, incorporating this regional knowledge of ecologically significant climatic gradients into a harmonized national map. This new map, reflecting vegetation and soils adapted to climates prior to approximately 1960, can serve as a broad-scale (approximately 1:5 M to 1:10 M) geospatial reference for monitoring and modeling effects of climate changes on Canadian ecosystems. "Vegetation Zones of Canada: a Biogeoclimatic Perspective" employs a two-level hierarchical legend. Level 1 vegetation zones reflect the global-scale latitudinal gradient of annual net radiation, as well as the effects of high elevation and west to east climatic and biogeographic variation across Canada. Within the level 1 vegetation zones, level 2 zones distinguish finer scale variation in zonal vegetation, especially in response to elevational and arctic climatic gradients, climate-related floristics and physiognomic diversity in the Great Plains, and maritime climatic influences on the east and west coasts. Thirty-three level 2 vegetation zones are recognized: High Arctic Sparse Tundra Mid-Arctic Dwarf Shrub Tundra Low Arctic Shrub Tundra Subarctic Alpine Tundra Western Boreal Alpine Tundra Cordilleran Alpine Tundra Pacific Alpine Tundra Eastern Alpine Tundra Subarctic Woodland-Tundra Northern Boreal Woodland Northwestern Boreal Forest West-Central Boreal Forest Eastern Boreal Forest Atlantic Maritime Heathland Pacific Maritime Rainforest Pacific Dry Forest Pacific Montane Forest Cordilleran Subboreal Forest Cordilleran Montane Forest Cordilleran Rainforest Cordilleran Dry Forest Eastern Temperate Mixed Forest Eastern Temperate Deciduous Forest Acadian Temperate Forest Rocky Mountains Foothills Parkland Great Plains Parkland Intermontane Shrub-Steppe Rocky Mountains Foothills Fescue Grassland Great Plains Fescue Grassland Great Plains Mixedgrass Grassland Central Tallgrass Grassland Cypress Hills Glaciers Please cite this dataset as: Baldwin, K.; Allen, L.; Basquill, S.; Chapman, K.; Downing, D.; Flynn, N.; MacKenzie, W.; Major, M.; Meades, W.; Meidinger, D.; Morneau, C.; Saucier, J-P.; Thorpe, J.; Uhlig, P. 2019. Vegetation Zones of Canada: a Biogeoclimatic Perspective. [Map] Scale 1:5,000,000. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service. Great Lake Forestry Center, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada.

The “Terrestrial Ecoregions of Canada” dataset provides representations of ecoregions. An ecoregion is a subdivision of an ecoprovince and is characterized by distinctive regional ecological factors, including climate, physiography, vegetation, soil, water, and fauna. For example, the Maritime Barrens ecoregion (no. 114) is one of nine ecoregions within the Newfoundland ecoprovince.

Data Sources:CanCoast Coastal Sensitivity Index 2090s, CanCoast Coastal Sensitivity Index 2020s, CanCoast Ground Ice, CanCoast Sea Level Change 2006 to 2099, CanCoast Sea Level Change 2006 to 2020, CanCoast Mean Wave Height with Sea Ice 1996-2005, CanCoast Mean Wave Height with Sea Ice 2090-2099Manson, G.K., Couture, N.J., and James, T.S., 2019. CanCoast Version 2.0: data and indices to describe the sensitivity of Canada's marine coasts to changing climate; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8551, 1 .zip file. https://doi.org/10.4095/314669Natural Resources of Canada:Permafrost Atlas of Canada: https://maps-cartes.services.geo.ca/server_serveur/services/NRCan/permafrost_atlas_of_canada_en/MapServer/WMSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WMS Esri:basemap: https://basemaps.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Basemap_v2/VectorTileServerArctic Sea Ice Extent: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=d1fb8225058e4a0d96ead7b9a574a652

Data Sources:Fisheries and Oceans CanadaCanada’s marine protected and conserved area:https://egisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/open_data_donnees_ouvertes/oceans_act_marine_protected_areas_zones_de_protection_marines_de_la_loi_sur_les_oceans/MapServerhttps://egisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/open_data_donnees_ouvertes/other_effective_area_based_conservation_measures/MapServer

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF):Bioclimatic subzones of the Arctic territory according to the CAVM https://geo.abds.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/7856ef8b-458f-4c2b-a95b-9ebc7a4cb217Esri Canada Basemaphttps://esrica-ncr.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=506ddbf4b83445c98a5d0b7713c62fb1https://esrica-ncr.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=16029291813f487aa17afc7fb0800d82 thumbnail image: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/750016

This feature service includes data on common variables of climate for Canada. Layers in this map service include daylight hours in December and June (solstice months), annual min, max, and mean temperatures, total rainfall and total snowfall. Data for all layers represent mean values from 1951 to 1980.Map Service published and hosted by Esri Canada, © 2020.Content Source(s):'Land Potential DataBase', Version 1.0, National Soil DataBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1997.'Climate5180', Version 1.0, National Soil DataBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. 1997.Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)

Just like its climate, Earth’s land cover varies widely between regions. Some regions are characterized by deserts, while in others wetlands predominate. Boreal forests, also called taiga, cover much of the planet’s northern latitudes, while tropical forests are a common feature in equatorial countries. These diverse types of land cover can be further broken down into “ecoregions”—large expanses of land, each with a distinct biological and environmental character.Mapping land cover often involves defining a set of ecoregions and determining which part or parts of Earth’s surface match the criteria for each ecoregion. To define a set of ecoregions, scientists may supplement existing work, such as maps of species distribution and vegetation types, with new insights and data gathered from regional experts. The land cover types included in this map layer are based on biogeographic research (sources listed here), a framework last updated in 2017 that defines more than 846 land-based ecoregions within about a dozen biomes or habitat types. This map layer represents those broader categories, like deserts and tropical forests. A couple tips for navigating this layer: 1) If a region is shaded entirely in the color representing a particular biome, it indicates that that biome is the predominant one, but there may be characteristics of other biomes present as well. 2) The actual borders between biomes are often large regions unto themselves rather than precise lines. There’s even a name for these transition areas: ecotones!This map layer from RESOLVE Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions includes the following biomes:Boreal Forests/Taiga: widespread in northern Russia and Canada, boreal forests are typically home to lots of conifers, mosses, and lichensDeserts and Xeric Shrubland: the evaporation rate may be greater than the rate of precipitation in these dry regions exemplified by the Sahara and GobiFlooded Grasslands and Savannas: like mangroves, this biome is waterlogged land that may support grasses, shrubs, and trees; the Everglades of South Florida are an exampleMangroves: the mangrove tree dominates these coastal regions, which frequently lie within intertidal zonesMediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub: these wooded regions are known for their hot, dry summers and cool, wet wintersMontane Grasslands and Shrublands: this biome, which features waxy, hairy plants, defines the Tibetan Plateau and parts of the Andes Bare Earth: occurring largely in Earth’s polar regions, bare earth includes tundra, a type of cold desert with sparse vegetationTemperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests: this biome may include oak, beech, and maple trees; in contrast to tropical forests, biodiversity here is usually concentrated near the forest floorTemperate Coniferous Forests: this biome has warm summers and cool winters with a wide variety of plant life including either needleleaf or broadleaf evergreen treesTemperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrubland: trees are less common in this biome, which goes by many names—such as prairie, pampas, and veldTropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests: located mostly in North and Central American regions with low precipitation and moderate temperature variability making it ideal for needleleaf conifers to growTropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests: this biome is characterized by year-round warm temperatures but seasonal precipitation that results in a long dry periods and feature drought-deciduous trees, for example the forests of southern Mexico or central India Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands: prominent in East Africa, these regions are often too dry to support much tree growthTropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests: common in the region between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, this biome has steady temperatures year round and high precipitation allowing for evergreen and semi-evergreen treesTundra: found near the poles, this biome is characterized by a cold desert, dark winters and sunny summers with low growing vegetation

This dataset provides an ecosystem type map at 12.5 meter pixel spacing and 0.2 ha minimum mapping unit for the area surrounding Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada for the time period 1997 to 2011. The map includes nine classes for peatland, wetland, and upland areas derived from a Random Forest classification trained on multi-date, multi-sensor remote sensing images across the study extent, and using field data and high-resolution Worldview-2 image interpretation for training and validation. The nine classes are: Water, Marsh, Swamp, Open Fen, Treed Fen, Bog, Upland Deciduous, Upland Conifer, and Sparsely Vegetated. A tenth map class identifies areas of historical fires (prior to 2011) that are currently undergoing post-fire successional revegetation. This dataset provides an ecosystem type map of the area before the large fire season of 2014 to better understand the effects of fires in the area.

The map title is Climate Regions. Map scale. North arrow pointing to the north. Map projection is Hammer-Aitoff. Border of Canada. Great Lakes Border for each theme category within Canada. Neat line around the map. Each theme category is identified by a number that corresponds to the legend. Legend is divided into eight categories: Arctic, Taiga, Cordilleran, Pacific Maritime, Boreal, Prairie, Southeastern, Atlantic Maritime. Tactile maps are designed with Braille, large text, and raised features for visually impaired and low vision users. The Tactile Maps of Canada collection includes: (a) Maps for Education: tactile maps showing the general geography of Canada, including the Tactile Atlas of Canada (maps of the provinces and territories showing political boundaries, lakes, rivers and major cities), and the Thematic Tactile Atlas of Canada (maps showing climatic regions, relief, forest types, physiographic regions, rock types, soil types, and vegetation). (b) Maps for Mobility: to help visually impaired persons navigate spaces and routes in major cities by providing information about streets, buildings and other features of a travel route in the downtown area of a city. (c) Maps for Transportation and Tourism: to assist visually impaired persons in planning travel to new destinations in Canada, showing how to get to a city, and streets in the downtown area.

The map title is Climate Regions. Map scale. North arrow pointing to the north. Map projection is Hammer-Aitoff. Border of Canada. Great Lakes Border for each theme category within Canada. Neat line around the map. Each theme category is identified by a number that corresponds to the legend. Legend is divided into eight categories: Arctic, Taiga, Cordilleran, Pacific Maritime, Boreal, Prairie, Southeastern, Atlantic Maritime. Tactile maps are designed with Braille, large text, and raised features for visually impaired and low vision users. The Tactile Maps of Canada collection includes: (a) Maps for Education: tactile maps showing the general geography of Canada, including the Tactile Atlas of Canada (maps of the provinces and territories showing political boundaries, lakes, rivers and major cities), and the Thematic Tactile Atlas of Canada (maps showing climatic regions, relief, forest types, physiographic regions, rock types, soil types, and vegetation). (b) Maps for Mobility: to help visually impaired persons navigate spaces and routes in major cities by providing information about streets, buildings and other features of a travel route in the downtown area of a city. (c) Maps for Transportation and Tourism: to assist visually impaired persons in planning travel to new destinations in Canada, showing how to get to a city, and streets in the downtown area.

Data describing clean growth and climate change projects that have received federal funding since 2015 that feeds into the Climate Action Map. The data include projects that meet Mitigation, Adaptation and Clean Technology objectives. The data include project names and descriptions, funding information, locations, and recipients.

Data Sources:Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)Identification of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA) in the Canadian Arctic https://geo.abds.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/2aaa3fa0-f5e4-4125-b6c8-12609ad154eeBioclimatic subzones of the Arctic territory according to the CAVM https://geo.abds.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/7856ef8b-458f-4c2b-a95b-9ebc7a4cb217Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI) https://geo.abds.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/8f4d5a7e-ccd2-45cd-9901-b15057252c0bArctic Protected Areas – 2017 https://geo.abds.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/2e56ee1f-50a9-4983-88f4-edaa8588950dBasemap

Arctic Research Mapping Application

Elevation and bathymetry https://armap.org/web-services/thumbnail: https://divediscover.whoi.edu/polar-regions/arctic-ecosystem/

Vegetation biophysical parameters correspond to physical properties of vegetation structure (e.g. density, height, biomass), biochemistry (e.g. chlorophyll and water content) or energy exchange (e.g. albedo, temperature). These parameters have been identified by the Global Climate Observing System as an essential climate variable required for ecosystem, weather and climate modelling and monitoring. The Canada wide products are derived from systematically acquired satellite imagery with spatial resolution from 10m to 30m and provided as monthly temporal or peak-season composites due to cloud cover. Products are derived applying algorithms developed at Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (NRCan) to Copernicus Sentinel 2 satellite imagery. Select a related product first to view content.

STE_SCANNED_MAP_BOUNDARY_SP includes an index of the mapsheet grid location of Soils, Terrain, Ecosystems and related scanned maps (including Agriculture Capability and Climate Capability maps). These maps are intended for on-screen viewing or printing. The majority of the maps have been geo-referenced. Mapping may not cover the whole map grid area. Some maps are interim or draft and may have been superseded. Some files are of related legends and map project text. Associated scanned map boundary attributes describe the project map (project level metadata) and provide a link for downloading the map, plus links to related reports, geo-referenced maps, and GIS digital data available from other sources. ATTENTION - The IMAGE_URL link is only useable by BC government staff. Public users can download the scanned maps by using the ECOCAT_URL link. There is no charge for the scanned map files. Please note that some maps and more recent mapping may also be available in digital GIS format. See - Ecosystem and Terrain Mapping Data Inventory.

Ecoregions vary in their make up and complexity. Some are relatively uniform in their composition, structure and processes. Others contain extreme variations in relief, soils, climate, vegetation, and species. This map shows the number of land cover types (up to 29 types are possible) per ecoregion and gives an indication of the level of diversity within a particular ecosystem.

A simulation showing the projected changes in June to August mean temperatures from the period 1975 to 1995 to the period 2080 to 2100 is shown on this map. There would be typically more warming over land than over oceans, at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes, but the warming would be smaller in the summer than in the winter. Temperatures would generally increase as a consequence of the projected increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. The results are based on climate change simulations made with the Coupled Global Climate Model developed by Environment Canada.

This project aimed to produce the first wall-to-wall estimate of C stocks in plants and soils of Canada at 250 m spatial resolution. This dataset contains the map with total C stored in plants of forested areas in Canada (AGB, BGB and dead plants) in kg/m² and C stock uncertainty. To estimate the C stored in plants of forest areas, we used 47,967 ground measurements of AGB measures and 58 covariates mainly composed of optical data, terrain parameters, structural parameters (e.g., SAR data, clump index, canopy heights – generated from satellite LiDAR- included in the other dataset), soil type map and radiation flux data. Different models were trained using a recursive feature elimination, random forest scheme and a 5-fold cross-validation assessment. The model with higher R² and lowest root mean square error (RMSE) was used for spatial prediction of AGB in forest areas while 1^st and 3^rd quantiles of RF quantile regression were used to build the uncertainty map. After generating the AGB map, the root biomass of forest areas was computed by its relationship to AGB according to forest type. The dead plant materials were computed by a linear regression between live and dead AGB defined with ground measurements. Ultimately, the AGB as well as dead plant materials and BGB were multiplied by 0.5 to provide the maps in kg C m^-2.

Multi-temporal Local Climate Zone maps for seven functional urban areas (Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg), and seven census years (1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016). Regions of interest are defined by each cities' functional urban area, and the LCZ maps are available per city and census year, on a 100 m spatial resolution.

The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is Canada's public inventory of pollutant releases (to air, water and land), disposals and transfers for recycling. This file is a geodatabase (GDB) that shows the locations of all facilities that reported to the NPRI in the current reporting year. The data are also available in a virtual globe format : https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/d9be6bec-47e5-4835-8d01-d2875a8d67ff Please consult the following resources to enhance your analysis: - Guide on using and Interpreting NPRI Data: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/national-pollutant-release-inventory/using-interpreting-data.html - Access additional data from the NPRI, including datasets and mapping products: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/national-pollutant-release-inventory/tools-resources-data/exploredata.html

Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada,

4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T4, Canada

Email: Junhua.zhang@canada.ca

The first version of a U.S.-EPA-BELD4-equivalent landuse database for Canada was compiled in 2018 by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) based on: (1) the first version of Canada-wide tree species composition maps based on the 2001 Canadian National Forest Inventory (NFI; Beaudoin et al., 2014); (2) the 2016 Canadian Annual Crop Inventory (ACI); and (3) the Land Cover Classification System surface hydrology (LCCS3) data set contained in the Collection 6 MODIS Land Cover product MCD12Q1 (Zhang and Moran, 2018). Recently, an improved mapping approach for estimating forest attributes from MODIS imagery was applied to reprocess the 2001 NFI-based species composition maps and to create a new set of species composition maps for 2011 using 2011 MODIS imagery (Beaudoin et al., 2017a,b). The new mapping approach resulted in an improved set of 2001 species composition maps as indicated by increased correlation coefficients and decreased mean deviations (MD) and root-mean-square deviations (RMSD) between 35,305 MODIS reference pixels for 2001 and the 2001 NFI photo-plot product (Beaudoin et al., 2017b). In addition, for the new 2011 species composition maps, expected reductions in forest coverage were seen for areas of Canada that had experienced rapid development between 2001 and 2011, such as the Athabasca Oil Sands (AOS) area in northeastern Alberta and areas near major urban centres such as Toronto and Vancouver. Given the improved mapping approach and the greater recentness of the 2011 tree species composition maps, the Canadian BELD4 landuse database was updated using these new 2011 maps and the same methodology described in Zhang and Moran (2018). Note that no change was made to the ACI and MODIS Land Cover product data sets that were used to develop this new database version.

Because the number of tree species considered in the 2001 NFI-based forest composition maps was reduced from 109 in the first version to 75 in the second version due to the least abundant tree species being lumped with other related species (Beaudoin et al., 2017b), gridded fractional-coverage fields for the U.S.-EPA-BELD4-equivalent landuse categories compiled for Canada have also been reduced, from 92 in the first version of the Canadian BELD4 database to 80 in this second version. The mapping from the 75 NFI tree species to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) BELD4 landuse categories is shown in the attached spreadsheet “ACI_NFI_BELD4_species_match_V2.xlsx”, along with the unchanged mapping of 62 ACI species and other landuse categories. The mapping used to link the LCCS3 categories to the BELD4 categories also remains unchanged and is described in the attached Excel file “MODIS_LCCS3_BELD4_mapping.xlsx”.

The updated version 2 of the Canadian BELD4 landuse database is provided here in GeoTIFF format at 1-km resolution for a Lambert conformal conic projection (+proj=lcc +lat_1=49 +lat_2=77 +lat_0=0 +lon_0=-95 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=GRS80 +units=m +no_defs) in the compressed file “CAN-BELD4_tif_V2.7z”. Note that to use this dataset in conjunction with the U.S. EPA BELD4 database (https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-modeling/biogenic-emission-sources), all MODIS landuse categories in the original EPA BELD4 database must be removed for Canada to avoid double-counting. Plots of the 80 matched Canadian and U.S. BELD4 vegetation species and other landuse categories in the new Canadian BELD4 database are shown in the attached file “CAN_US_Matched_BELD4_Species_Plots_V2.pdf”. Lastly, an overview and description of the updated Canadian BELD4 landuse database was presented at a recent conference (Zhang et al., 2019, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-08/documents/800am_zhang_2_0.pdf); this presentation is also provided in this package as file “2019EI_Updated_BELD4_Impact_on_VOC_emissions.pptx”.

REFERENCES

Beaudoin, A., Bernier, P.Y., Guindon, L., Villemaire, P., Guo, X.J., Stinson, G., Bergeron, T., Magnussen, S., and Hall, R.J.: Mapping attributes of Canada’s forests at moderate resolution through kNN and MODIS imagery. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 44, 521–532, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2013-0401, 2014.

Beaudoin A., Bernier P.Y., Villemaire P., Guindon L., Guo X.-J., Species composition, forest properties and land cover types across Canada’s forests at 250m resolution for 2001 and 2011. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Quebec, Canada, https://doi.org/10.23687/ec9e2659-1c29-4ddb-87a2-6aced147a990, 2017a.

Beaudoin, A., Bernier, P.Y., Villemaire, P., Guindon, L., Guo, X.-J., Tracking forest attributes across Canada between 2001 and 2011 using a kNN mapping approach applied to MODIS imagery, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 48: 85–93, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2017-0184, 2017b.

Zhang, J. and Moran, M. D., U.S.-EPA-BELD4-Equivalent Landuse Database for Canada [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2231047, 2018.

Zhang, J., Moran, M.D., and He, Z.: Updates to Version 4 of the Biogenic Emissions Landuse Database (BELD4) for Canada and Impacts on Biogenic VOC Emissions, 2019 International Emissions Inventory Conference, July 29th – Aug. 2nd, Dallas, Texas, USA, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-08/documents/800am_zhang_2_0.pdf, 2019.

AcknowledgementS

We are very grateful for the dedicated assistance of Dr. Zhuanshi He of SOLANA Networks Inc. in preparing this updated version of the database.

RELATED DATA SETS AND MATERIALS

“CAN-BELD4_tif_V2.7z” – Version 2 of the extended BELD4 GeoTIFF file for Canada

“ACI_NFI_BELD4_species_match_V2.xlsx” – Version 2 of the NFI/ACI-BELD4 landuse-category crosswalk file

“MODIS_LCCS3_BELD4_mapping.xlsx” – MODIS-BELD4 landuse-category crosswalk file (same as in Version 1)

“CAN_US_Matched_BELD4_Species_Plots_V2.pdf” – Plots of 80 updated BELD4 landuse category fields over Canada.

“2019EI_Updated_BELD4_Impact_on_VOC_emissions.pptx” – 2019 conference presentation on this new version of the Canadian BELD4 landuse database

This map includes data on common variables of climate for Canada. current wind speedcurrent temperaturelive weather alertsdaylight hours in December and June (mean values from 1951 to 1980)annual min, max, and mean temperatures (mean values from 1951 to 1980)total rainfall (mean values from 1951 to 1980)total snowfall (mean values from 1951 to 1980)