Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) FGDC Standards Working Group July 7, 2010

Develop a national standard for consistent descriptions of coastal and marine ecological features Allow local and regional users to report to a single national standard Articulate with existing FGDC standards

What are the intended applications for CMECS? Resource inventory Conservation and restoration planning Individual habitat queries Conservation status assessment and monitoring Ecosystem services management Regional and national resource assessment Data sharing facilitation EFH delineation

Features Provides framework to organize ecological relationships and define units Presents geology, chemistry, physics, biology under a single structure Provides approach for consistently naming units as a basis for mapping to support development of condition assessment tools

CMECS Domain CMECS domain covers all waters, substrates, benthos and sub- benthos of the coastal marine realm extending: Landward to the tidal splash zone of the coasts, intertidal euhaline and brackish wetlands, and deep waters of the Great Lakes; Up river / estuary to the head of tides where tide is equal to or greater than 0.2 ft (0.06 m) for at least part of the month; Seaward to the deep ocean, including all continental and ocean waters and bottom.

System Marine Subsystem CMECS System and Subsystem Shallow Water Deep Water Tidal Riverine Nearshore Neritic Oceanic Limnetic Littoral Estuarine Lacustrine

CMECS Components Character of sediments and soils below substrate surface Water Column Component (WCC) Benthic Biotic Component (BBC) Surface Geology Component (SGC) Sub-Benthic Component (SBC) Geoform Component (GFC) Major geomorphic character or structural character of coast or seafloor Structure, characteristics, and processes of water column and associated biota Composition of biota on sea floor surface Geological composition of surface and near-surface substrates; surface features, including biogenic structures

Benthic Biotic Component Class Biotic Group Faunal Reef Coral Reef Faunal Bed Aquatic Bed Emergent Wetland Scrub-shrub Wetland Forested Wetland Subclass e.g., Macrocystis Community Biotope e.g., Kelp Forest e.g. Macroalgae No Known Cover

CMECS Applied Classification: System and Subsystem: Marine Nearshore Subtidal Surface Geology Component Class: Coral Reef Subclass: Back Reef Reef Morphology: Live Hardbottom Benthic Biotic Component Class: Faunal Bed Subclass: Epifauna Modifier: Sessile Biotic Group: Coral Garden Biotope: Mixed Soft Coral Community

Relationship to other FGDC standards National Wetland Standard (FGDC-STD-004) National Vegetation Classification (FGDC-STD ) Soils Geographic Data Standard (FGDC-STD-006) Shoreline Metadata Standard (FGDC-STD )

Integration with Existing Classification Approaches NOAA Corals (Coral ecosystems) NOAA NERR System (Nearshore aquatic and coastal terrestrial areas) Greene et al. (Pacific deepwater marine geoforms) MapCoast (Shallow subaqueous soil areas) System for Classifying Habitats in Estuarine and Marine Environments [SCHEME] (Florida state waters) Shorezone (Alaska coast)

National Park Service Gulf of Mexico Alliance IABIN OBIS Other international usage Current Implementation

Stakeholder Outreach Coastal States Organization Association of State Wetland Managers State natural resource agencies NatureServe state network Long Term Ecological Research program (LTER) EBM Tools network webinars Regional governance entities

Responding to Review Comments Database of comments Review by the development team Sort by informative/normative Working group review of normative comments Development team evaluates and proposes revisions to working group Respond to all comments

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