Hierarchical benthic habitat classification in the Atlantic Ocean

Classification of the Atlantic Ocean seabed into broad-scale benthic habitats employing a hierarchical top-down clustering approach aimed at informing Marine Spatial Planning. This work was performed at the University of Plymouth in 2021 with data provided by a wide group of partners representing the nations surrounding the Atlantic Ocean. It classifies continuous environmental data into discrete classes that can be compared to observed biogeographical patterns at various scales. It has 3 levels of classification. For ease of use, a layer is provided for each level. Level 1 has 4 classes. Level 2 has 15 classes nested within level 1. Layers indices are 2 digits (1[level1 class index]1[level 2 class index]). Level 3 has 157 classes nested within level 2 and class names have 4 digits (1digit[level1 class index]1[level 2 class index]2[level 3 class index]). Note that the classification was performed for the whole world and thus it has more classes than in the presented layer.