Esselman, P., J. Meerman, E. Boles, G. Myvett, J. Higgins, A. Warner, T. Fitzhugh, P. Morgan  & R. Frutos. 2005.  Belize Aquatic Ecosystems. 2nd Draft.

This national aquatic ecosystems concept is a work in progress, yet to be validated with field data. The concept is the result of a workshop held in Punta Gorda (Toledo district, Belize) in early 2002.  The results were presented at the First Belize Freshwater Summit, 14-15 January, 2003. Sponsored by TIDE and The Nature Conservancy.

The aquatic ecosystems map consists primarily of a ArcView shapefile (2,187 Kb) with attributes such as geology, connectivity, salinity, source and others. The zipped file now also contains full metadata and a detailed report in pdf format. The maps above are examples and have been generated using the same shapefile. At this stage, the aquatic ecosystems map is really a stream-ecosystems map. Lacustrine ecosystems will be classified as a next step. A PowerPoint presentation (Peter Esselman) explaining the process followed during development of the map is also available (1,621 Kb).

The principal author welcomes any comments, additions and/or corrections.

Back to top

About Belize|Administrative|Publications|Species Lists|Projects|Links|HOME