Map 1
Average decadal ocean warming, by marine bioregion, since 1982

Map description

The title of the map is "Average decadal ocean warming, by marine bioregion, since 1982"

This map provides a visual representation of the degree of ocean warming per decade in each marine bioregion in Canada.

On the image, there is one large map of Canada and two legends. On the map, marine bioregions are outlined in grey and labeled with a numeric code. The marine bioregions are filled with fuchsia, the intensity of which corresponds to its degree of average decadal warming. Dashed grey lines show provincial and territorial boundaries. A legend in the upper right corner describes how information is displayed on the map, and the legend under the map provides the name of the marine bioregion corresponding to each numeric code.

The map shows that the highest degree of warming since 1982 occurred in the Scotian shelf, followed by the Strait of Georgia, Newfoundland-Labrador Shelves and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Eastern Arctic, Hudson Bay complex, and Northern Shelf all had decadal warming trends from 0.16 to 0.19 degrees Celsius. The marine bioregions in the second lowest warming category are the Southern shelf, Offshore Pacific, and Western Arctic. The Arctic Basin and Arctic Archipelago experienced the lowest degree of warming, and both of these trends were insignificant.

The legend in the upper right-hand corner of the map described how information is displayed on the map.

The fuchsia shaded area indicates average decadal warming (degrees Celsius) of marine bioregions. The shading intensity varies, with the lightest fuchsia representing a change in ocean temperature from 0.0047 to 0.0052 degrees Celsius per decade and the darkest fuchsia representing a change in ocean temperature from 0.37 to 0.53 degrees Celsius per decade.

Marine bioregions where the trend was not statistically significant are represented by hatching in the bioregion.

Note(s): Average decadal ocean warming was calculated from an ARIMA time series model of monthly mean ocean temperatures. Arctic bioregions (Arctic Archipelago, Arctic Basin, Eastern Arctic, and Western Arctic) models only included data from January 1982 to December 2015. All other bioregions were analyzed from January 1982 to December 2024.

Source(s): Environment Accounts and Statistics Division.