1.0

The layer was prepared as part of the spatial assessment of the threat status and protection levels of South African marine and coastal ecosystems for the 2011 National Biodiversity Assessment. Prepared by Stephen Holness, Trevor Wolf, Kerry Sink, Linda Harris and Mandy Lombard with inputs from Ben Halpern and Hedley Grantham.

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Data on Marine Offshore pelagic habitats are defined as the surface and mid-water habitats in the area between the -30m contour and the edge of the EEZ. The pelagic habitats were subdivided according to a pelagic bioregionalisation exercise undertaken for the Offshore Marine Protected Area project (Lagabrielle 2009,

Sink et al. 2010), which mapped three pelagic bioregions, 7 pelagic biozones and 16 pelagic habitats using a cluster analysis based primarily on the basis of productivity and temperature. Some minor adjustments were made to this layer to align it with the -30m edge used in the current study and to transfer the island surrounds to the coastal, inshore, islands and lagoons category described in the metadata for NBA_benthic_and_coastal_habitat_map_wgs84.sh.

Available documentation and references:

Holness, S., Sink, K., Harris, L., Wolf, T. and Lombard, M. 2011. Spatial assessment of the threat status and protection levels of South African marine and coastal ecosystems for the 2011 National Biodiversity Assessment: Methods and Outputs, SANBI unpublished report.

Lagabrielle E. 2009. National Pelagic Bioregionalisation of South Africa. Preliminary report, South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa.

Sink K, Lombard M, Grantham H, Attwood C, Leslie R, Samaai T, Kerwath S, Fairweather T, van der Lingen C, Atkinson A, Wolf T & Majiedt P. 2010. Systematic Biodiversity Planning to identify a potential offshore Marine Protected Area network for South Africa, SANBI, 34.

SANS 1878

FGDC-STD-001-1998