In order to support ongoing marine spatial planning in New Zealand, a numerical environmental classification using Gradient Forest (GF) models, was developed using a broad suite of biotic and high-resolution environmental predictor variables. A total of 630,997 records of 1,716 taxa living on, or near the seafloor and occurring at 39,766 unique locations were used to inform the transformation of 20 gridded environmental variables to represent spatial patterns of compositional turnover in 4 biotic groups (demersal fish, benthic invertebrates, macroalgae, and reef fish) and the overall seafloor community. Compositional turnover of the overall community was classified using a hierarchical procedure to define groups at different levels of classification detail and at two resolutions: a 250 m resolution grid from the coastline to the edge of the territorial sea (12 NM from shore), and a 1 km resolution grid from the edge of the territorial sea to the edge of the New Zealand exclusive economic zone. The 75-group level classification was assessed as representing the highest number of groups that captured the majority of the variation across the New Zealand marine environment. This classification is referred to as the New Zealand \u2018Seafloor Community Classification\u2019 (SCC).<\/P>
Associated spatially explicit measures of uncertainty for compositional turnover for the overall community (measured as the standard deviation of the mean (SD) compositional turnover averaged across each environmental variable) are also available, as is an added measure of uncertainty \u2013 coverage of the environmental space, which highlights geographic areas where predictions may be less certain due to low sampling.<\/P> The full report and description of classes (at the 75 group level) are available at:
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