in Context the SCotian Shelf - COINAtlantic

The Scotian Shelf is the wide, submerged portion of the continental
shelf lying off Nova Scotia, 700 kilometres long and between 125
and 230 kilometres wide. The Northeast Channel separates the shelf
from the Gulf of Maine to the southwest, while the Laurentian Channel
is the natural boundary with the Newfoundland and? Shelf to the northeast
(Figure 1). The shelf edge, where the seafloor begins to fall steeply
away, lies at about 200 m depth. For the purposes of this report, the
region includes the Scotian Slope and Rise (the area from the edge of
the continental shelf seaward to the abyssal plain), and the abyssal plain
itself within Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The state of the Scotian Shelf marine ecosystem is influenced by many complex
interactions: interactions between the different factors that constitute the
physical environment; interactions between the physical environment and
the plants and animals that live there; interactions between the various species;
and human interactions with the physical environment, including human
activities occurring both in this region and far away. This section describes
major features of the marine environment in this region and highlights, both
the physical environment and characteristic species that are found here. More
comprehensive overviews of the region can be found in The Scotian Shelf:
An Ecological Overview for Ocean Planning (Breeze et al. 2002) and Implications
of Ecosystem Dynamics for the Integrated Management of the Eastern
Scotian Shelf (Zwanenburg et al. 2006). Worcester and Parker (2010)
describe recent trends in the ecosystem, while Davis and Browne (1996)
provide a description of the area aimed at the informed general reader.
http://coinatlantic.ca/index.php/state-of-the-scotian-shelf
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