THE BRITISH-COLUMBIA MARINE ECOSYSTEM CLASSIFICATION - RATIONALE, DEVELOPMENT, AND VERIFICATION

There is an increasing need to develop new tools and techniques for ma rine conservation, resource management, and planning. One of these new techniques is the application of terrestrial ecosystem approaches to the development of an equivalent marine methodology. These modified ec osystem approaches have been used in the development of the British Co lumbia Marine Ecosystem Classification (BCMEC) for the Pacific coast o f Canada. The classification is hierarchical, and consists of four nes ted divisions based on physical properties and a fifth division based on current, depth, bottom substrate bottom relief and wave exposure. T he fifth division-termed ecounits-was created at a considerably larger scale (1:250,000), and is the first example of a large-scale marine c lassification applied over a large area (453,000 km(2)). The ecounits were developed to evaluate the boundaries and homogeneity of the four larger divisions, as well as for the application to coastal management and marine protected areas planning. This article presents the develo pment of the ecounits, and their application toward evaluating the bou ndaries of the other divisions. Results indicate that large-scale ecos ystem classifications can be used as a tool in coastal management and protected areas planning The utility of the ecounits will increase as additional physical and oceanographic properties (i.e., salinity and t emperature) are incorporated.