EcoService Models Library (ESML)
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Which comparison is best for me?EM Variables by Variable Role
One quick way to compare ecological models (EMs) is by comparing their variables. Predictor variables show what kinds of influences a model is able to account for, and what kinds of data it requires. Response variables show what information a model is capable of estimating.
This first comparison shows the names (and units) of each EM’s variables, side-by-side, sorted by variable role. Variable roles in ESML are as follows:
- Predictor Variables
- Time- or Space-Varying Variables
- Constants and Parameters
- Intermediate (Computed) Variables
- Response Variables
- Computed Response Variables
- Measured Response Variables
EM Variables by Category
A second way to use variables to compare EMs is by focusing on the kind of information each variable represents. The top-level categories in the ESML Variable Classification Hierarchy are as follows:
- Policy Regarding Use or Management of Ecosystem Resources
- Land Surface (or Water Body Bed) Cover, Use or Substrate
- Human Demographic Data
- Human-Produced Stressor or Enhancer of Ecosystem Goods and Services Production
- Ecosystem Attributes and Potential Supply of Ecosystem Goods and Services
- Non-monetary Indicators of Human Demand, Use or Benefit of Ecosystem Goods and Services
- Monetary Values
Besides understanding model similarities, sorting the variables for each EM by these 7 categories makes it easier to see if the compared models can be linked using similar variables. For example, if one model estimates an ecosystem attribute (in Category 5), such as water clarity, as a response variable, and a second model uses a similar attribute (also in Category 5) as a predictor of recreational use, the two models can potentially be used in tandem. This comparison makes it easier to spot potential model linkages.
All EM Descriptors
This selection allows a more detailed comparison of EMs by model characteristics other than their variables. The 50-or-so EM descriptors for each model are presented, side-by-side, in the following categories:
- EM Identity and Description
- EM Modeling Approach
- EM Locations, Environments, Ecology
- EM Ecosystem Goods and Services (EGS) potentially modeled, by classification system
EM Descriptors by Modeling Concepts
This feature guides the user through the use of the following seven concepts for comparing and selecting EMs:
- Conceptual Model
- Modeling Objective
- Modeling Context
- Potential for Model Linkage
- Feasibility of Model Use
- Model Certainty
- Model Structural Information
Though presented separately, these concepts are interdependent, and information presented under one concept may have relevance to other concepts as well.
Compare Criteria:
Show Criteria
Hide CriteriaEM Identity and Description
EM Identification
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EM ID
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EM-369 
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Short Name
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Envision, Puget Sound, WA, USA | Reef density of S. gigas, St. Croix, USVI | Chinook salmon value (household), Yaquina Bay, OR | ComunityViz - land-sea planning submodel |
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EM Full Name
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Envision, Puget Sound, WA, USA | Relative density of Strombus gigas (on reef), St. Croix, USVI | Economic value of Chinook salmon per household method, Yaquina Bay, OR | A technical guide to the integrated land-sea planning toolkit |
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EM Source or Collection
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Envision | US EPA | US EPA | None |
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EM Source Document ID
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313 ?Comment:Doc 314 is a secondary source. It is a webpage guide intended to provide support for developing an application using ENVISION. |
335 | 324 | 473 |
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Document Author
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Bolte, J. and Vache, K. | Yee, S. H., Dittmar, J. A., and L. M. Oliver | Stephen J. Jordan, Timothy O'Higgins and John A. Dittmar | Crist, P., Madden, K., Varley, I., Eslinger, D., Walker, D., Anderson, A., Morehead, S. and Dunton, K., |
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Document Year
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2010 | 2014 | 2012 | 2009 |
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Document Title
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Envisioning Puget Sound Alternative Futures: PSNERP Final Report | Comparison of methods for quantifying reef ecosystem services: A case study mapping services for St. Croix, USVI | Ecosystem Services of Coastal Habitats and Fisheries: Multiscale Ecological and Economic Models in Support of Ecosystem-Based Management | Integrated Land-Sea Planning: A Technical Guide to the Integrated Land-Sea Planning Toolkit. |
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Document Status
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Documentation is peer-reviewed and published | Peer reviewed and published | Peer reviewed and published | Peer reviewed and published |
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Comments on Status
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Published report | Published journal manuscript | Published journal manuscript | Published report |
Software and Access
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
| http://envision.bioe.orst.edu | Not applicable | Not applicable | https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstreams/3dee92a8-9373-4bcc-be25-eda74e81fabf/download | |
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Contact Name
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John Bolte ?Comment:Phone# 541-737-2041 |
Susan H. Yee | Stephen Jordan |
Patrick Crist ?Comment:No contact information provided |
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Contact Address
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Oregon State University, Dept. of Biological & Ecological Engineering, 116C Gilmore Hall, Corvallis, OR 97333 | US EPA, Office of Research and Development, NHEERL, Gulf Ecology Division, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561, USA | U.S. EPA, Gulf Ecology Div., 1 Sabine Island Dr., Gulf Breeze, FL 32561, USA | None provided |
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Contact Email
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boltej@engr.orst.edu | yee.susan@epa.gov | jordan.steve@epa.gov | patrick@planitfwd.com |
EM Description
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Summary Description
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SUMMARY: "...the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project, completed an analysis of alternative future regional trajectories of landscape change for the Puget Sound region. This effort developed three scenarios of change: 1) Status Quo, reflecting a continuation of current trends in the region, 2) Managed Growth, reflecting the adoption of an aggressive set of land use management policies focusing on protecting and restoring ecosystem function and concentrating growth within Urban Growth Areas (UGA) and near regional growth centers, and 3) Unmanaged Growth, reflecting a relaxation of land use restrictions with limited protection of ecosystem functions. Analyses assumed a fixed population growth rate across all three scenarios, defined by the Washington Office of Financial Management county level growth estimates. Scenarios were generated using a spatially- and temporally-explicit alternative futures analysis model, Envision, previously developed by Oregon State University researchers. The model accepts as input a vector-based representation of the landscape and associated datasets describing relevant landscape characteristics, descriptors of various processes influencing landscape change, and a set of policies, or decision alternatives, which reflect scenario-specific land management alternatives. The model generates 1) a set of spatial coverages (maps) reflecting scenario outcomes of a variety of landscape variables, most notably land use/land cover, shoreline modifications, and population projections, and 2) a set of summary statistics describing landscape change variables summarized across spatial reporting units. Analyses were run on each of such sub-basins in the Puget Sound, and aggregated to providing Sound-wide results. This information is being used by PSNERP to project future impairment of ecosystem functions, goods, and services. The Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem project data also provide inputs to calculate aspects of future nearshore process degradation. Impairment and degradation are primary factors being used to define future conditions for the PSNERP General Investigation Study." AUTHOR'S DESCRIPTION: "In this report, we document the application of an alternative futures analysis framework that incorporates these capabilities to the analysis of alternative future trajectories in the Puget Sound region. This framework, Envision (Bolte et al, 2007; Hulse et al. 2008) is a spatially and temporally explicit, standards-based, open source toolset specifically designed to facilitate alternative futures analyses. It employs a multiagent-based modeling approach that contains a robust capability for defining alternative management strategies and scenarios, incorporating a variety of landscape change processes, and creating maps of alternative landscape trajectories, expressed though a variety of metrics defined in an application-specific way." ABOUT ENVISION (ENVISION WEBSITE): "Central to Envision, and conceived at the s | ABSTRACT: "...We investigated and compared a number of existing methods for quantifying ecological integrity, shoreline protection, recreational opportunities, fisheries production, and the potential for natural products discovery from reefs. Methods were applied to mapping potential ecosystem services production around St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Overall, we found that a number of different methods produced similar predictions." AUTHOR'S DESCRIPTION: "A number of methods have been developed for linking biophysical attributes of reef condition, such as reef structural complexity, fish biomass, or species richness, to provisioning of ecosystem goods and services (Principe et al., 2012). We investigated the feasibility of using existing methods and data for mapping production of reef ecosystem goods and services. We applied these methods toward mapping potential ecosystem goods and services production in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI)...For each of the five categories of ecosystem services, we chose a suite of models and indices for estimating potential production based on relative ease of implementation, consisting of well-defined parameters, and likely availability of input data, to maximize potential for transferability to other locations. For each method, we assembled the necessary reef condition and environmental data as spatial data layers for St. Croix (Table1). The coastal zone surrounding St. Croix was divided into 10x10 m grid cells, and production functions were applied to quantify ecosystem services provisioning in each grid cell…We broadly consider fisheries production to include harvesting of aquatic organisms as seafood for human consumption (NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), 2009; Principe et al., 2012), as well as other non-consumptive uses such as live fish or coral for aquariums (Chan and Sadovy, 2000), or shells or skeletons for ornamental art or jewelry (Grigg, 1989; Hourigan, 2008). The density of key commercial fisheries species and the value of finfish can be associated with the relative cover of key benthic habitat types on which they depend (Mumby et al., 2008). For each grid cell, we estimated the contribution of coral reefs to fisheries production as the overall weighted average of relative magnitudes of contribution across habitat types within that grid cell: Relative fisheries production j = ΣiciMij where ci is the fraction of area within each grid cell for each habitat type i (dense, medium dense, or sparse seagrass, mangroves, sand, macroalgae, A. palmata, Montastraea reef, patch reef, and dense or sparse gorgonians),and Mij is the magnitude associated with each habitat for a given metric j:...(2) density of the queen conch Strombus gigas" | ABSTRACT:"Critical habitats for fish and wildlife are often small patches in landscapes, e.g., aquatic vegetation beds, reefs, isolated ponds and wetlands, remnant old-growth forests, etc., yet the same animal populations that depend on these patches for reproduction or survival can be extensive, ranging over large regions, even continents or major ocean basins. Whereas the ecological production functions that support these populations can be measured only at fine geographic scales and over brief periods of time, the ecosystem services (benefits that ecosystems convey to humans by supporting food production, water and air purification, recreational, esthetic, and cultural amenities, etc.) are delivered over extensive scales of space and time. These scale mismatches are particularly important for quantifying the economic values of ecosystem services. Examples can be seen in fish, shellfish, game, and bird populations. Moreover, there can be wide-scale mismatches in management regimes, e.g., coastal fisheries management versus habitat management in the coastal zone. We present concepts and case studies linking the production functions (contributions to recruitment) of critical habitats to commercial and recreational fishery values by combining site specific research data with spatial analysis and population models. We present examples illustrating various spatial scales of analysis, with indicators of economic value, for recreational Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) salmon fisheries in the U.S. Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon) and commercial blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and penaeid shrimp fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. | CommunityViz® is an advanced yet easy-to-use GIS software extension that is designed to help people visualize, analyze, and communicate about important planning decisions. Widely adopted by land-use planners, it supports informed, collaborative decision-making by illustrating and analyzing alternative planning scenarios. It features flexible and interactive analysis tools, a rich set of presentation tools, and several options for 3D visualization of future places. In the land-sea toolkit, CommunityViz (sometimes referred to as “Cviz”) serves as the platform for creating land use scenarios. It models how urban growth could occur over time as the result of present-day decisions regarding land use and regulation. The resulting future growth conditions are passed to NatureServe Vista (Vista) and NSPECT for impact assessment, and those results can be returned to CommunityViz for display and for guidance in development of revisions to planning scenarios. Throughout the integration process, CommunityViz provides the ability to assess a variety of socio-economic indicators attached to the land-use scenarios. |
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Specific Policy or Decision Context Cited
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None identified | None identified | None identified | None provided |
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Biophysical Context
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No additional description provided | No additional description provided | Yaquina Bay estuary | Not applicable |
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EM Scenario Drivers
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Alternative future land management strategies (status quo, managed growth, unmanaged growth) | No scenarios presented | No scenarios presented | No scenarios presented |
EM Relationship to Other EMs or Applications
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Method Only, Application of Method or Model Run
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Method + Application (multiple runs exist) View EM Runs | Method + Application | Method + Application | Method Only |
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New or Pre-existing EM?
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Application of existing model | Application of existing model | New or revised model | New or revised model |
Related EMs (for example, other versions or derivations of this EM) described in ESML
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Document ID for related EM
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Doc-314 | Doc-47 ?Comment:Doc 314 is a secondary source. It is a webpage guide intended to provide support for developing an application using ENVISION. |
None | Doc-324 | Doc-473 |
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EM ID for related EM
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EM-12 | EM-333 | None | EM-603 | EM-397 | EM-1003 | EM-1006 | EM-1007 | EM-1008 |
EM Modeling Approach
EM Relationship to Time
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Temporal Extent
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2000-2060 | 2006-2007, 2010 | 2003-2008 | Not applicable |
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EM Time Dependence
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time-dependent | time-stationary | time-stationary | time-dependent |
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EM Time Reference (Future/Past)
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future time | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
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EM Time Continuity
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discrete | Not applicable | Not applicable | other or unclear (comment) |
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EM Temporal Grain Size Value
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1 | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
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EM Temporal Grain Size Unit
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Year | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
EM Spatial Extent
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Bounding Type
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Watershed/Catchment/HUC | Physiographic or ecological | Geopolitical | Not applicable |
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Spatial Extent Name
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Puget Sound watershed | Coastal zone surrounding St. Croix | Pacific Northwest | Not applicable |
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Spatial Extent Area (Magnitude)
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10,000-100,000 km^2 | 100-1000 km^2 | >1,000,000 km^2 | Not applicable |
Spatial Distribution of Computations
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Spatial Distribution
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spatially distributed (in at least some cases) | spatially distributed (in at least some cases) | spatially lumped (in all cases) | other or unclear (comment) |
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Spatial Grain Type
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Irregular | area, for pixel or radial feature | Not applicable | Not applicable |
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Spatial Grain Size
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Varies | 10 m x 10 m | Not applicable | Not applicable |
EM Structure and Computation Approach
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Computational Approach
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Numeric | Analytic | Analytic | Analytic |
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EM Determinism
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deterministic | deterministic | deterministic | deterministic |
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Statistical Estimation of EM
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Model Checking Procedures Used
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Model Calibration Reported?
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Unclear | Yes | No | Not applicable |
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Model Goodness of Fit Reported?
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Not applicable | No | No | Not applicable |
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Goodness of Fit (metric| value | unit)
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None | None | None | None |
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Model Operational Validation Reported?
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Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable |
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Model Uncertainty Analysis Reported?
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Not applicable | No | No | Not applicable |
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Model Sensitivity Analysis Reported?
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Not applicable | No | No | Not applicable |
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Model Sensitivity Analysis Include Interactions?
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Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
EM Locations, Environments, Ecology
Location of EM Application
Terrestrial location (Classification hierarchy: Continent > Country > U.S. State [United States only])
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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None |
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None |
Marine location (Classification hierarchy: Realm > Region > Province > Ecoregion)
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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None |
Centroid Lat/Long (Decimal Degree)
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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Centroid Latitude
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47.58 | 17.73 | 44.62 | Not applicable |
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Centroid Longitude
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-122.32 | -64.77 | -124.02 | Not applicable |
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Centroid Datum
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WGS84 | WGS84 | WGS84 | Not applicable |
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Centroid Coordinates Status
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Estimated | Estimated | Estimated | Not applicable |
Environments and Scales Modeled
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Environmental Sub-Class
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Aquatic Environment (sub-classes not fully specified) | Near Coastal Marine and Estuarine | Terrestrial Environment (sub-classes not fully specified) | Near Coastal Marine and Estuarine | Near Coastal Marine and Estuarine | Terrestrial Environment (sub-classes not fully specified) | Not applicable |
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Specific Environment Type
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Pacific NW US region, coastal to montane, urban to rural | Coral reefs | Yaquina Bay estuary and ocean | None |
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EM Ecological Scale
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Ecological scale is finer than that of the Environmental Sub-class | Ecological scale is finer than that of the Environmental Sub-class | Ecological scale is finer than that of the Environmental Sub-class | Ecological scale corresponds to the Environmental Sub-class |
Scale and taxa of organisms modeled
Scale of differentiation of organisms modeled
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EM ID
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
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EM Organismal Scale
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Not applicable | Species | Other (multiple scales) | Community |
Taxonomic level and name of organisms or groups identified
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
| None Available |
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None Available |
EnviroAtlas URL
EM Ecosystem Goods and Services (EGS) potentially modeled, by classification system
CICES v 4.3 - Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (Section > Division > Group > Class)
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
| None |
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<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/national-ecosystem-services-classification-system-nescs-plus">National Ecosystem Services Classification System (NESCS) Plus</a>
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(Environmental Subclass > Ecological End-Product (EEP) > EEP Subclass > EEP Modifier)
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EM-369
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EM-459 | EM-604 | EM-1005 |
| None |
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None |