BLOG POST

EoPS summer update: habitats

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Species and their habitats are a foundation of the ecosystem framework, but there is currently no generally agreed upon habitat classification system for Puget Sound. The closest thing for its marine and estuarine waters may be Dr. Megan Dethier's 1990 resource A marine and estuarine habitat classification system for Washington State.  Much of the work for that document was done in the general vicinity of Puget Sound, and it has been an influential resource for major habitat mapping efforts in the region, such as Shorezone. 

Species and their habitats are a foundation of the ecosystem framework, but there is currently no generally agreed upon habitat classification system for Puget Sound. The closest thing for its marine and estuarine waters may be Dr. Megan Dethier's 1990 resource A marine and estuarine habitat classification system for Washington State.  Much of the work for that document was done in the general vicinity of Puget Sound, and it has been an influential resource for major habitat mapping efforts in the region, such as Shorezone. 

We recently commissioned Dr. Dethier to update some of the diagnostic species and "common associates"—the species you are likely to find in a given habitat—from this resource. These species and their descriptions will be linked to habitat maps on EoPS, and we have also added Dethier's individual habitat descriptions to pages within the encyclopedia. They are currently available under "FILTER BY TOPIC" at: http://www.eopugetsound.org/topics/overview (in the left hand margin), and will eventually occupy their own landing page. As far as we know, it's the first time these classifications have been placed into a relational database. Stay tuned in coming months as we develop these sections. 

Other related work going on behind the scenes: We are updating our entire species library to include accounts and descriptions from the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). We especially like EOL because it allows you, the scientist, to curate its pages. Perhaps you study an obscure tubeworm, or did your thesis on a little known rodent from the Puget Sound watershed? EOL offers you the chance to update or provide information on its pages in a proven and scientifically vetted format. Once we begin consuming information from EOL on our pages, your work could then potentially find its way into EoPS.