Notes

Land in classes 1 to 3 in the Canada Land Inventory has been termed ‘dependable agricultural land’ and represents land with a high capability for sustained agricultural production.

For geographic coverage, please see Map 1, Appendix H in Statistics Canada, 2013, “Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada,” Human Activity and the Environment, Catalogue no. 16-201-X.

Farm area represents the category ‘Total farm area’ from the Census of Agriculture—this includes the following land use categories: cropland, summerfallow, tame or seeded pasture, natural pasture and other land.

Settled area is based on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) 30 m land cover code for developed areas. Some northern areas only partially covered by the AAFC land cover (see Map 1, Appendix C in Statistics Canada, 2013, “Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada,” Human Activity and the Environment, Catalogue no. 16-201-X for geographic coverage) were supplemented with estimates derived from Statistics Canada’s settlements data and AAFC’s 30 m land cover.

The Greater Golden Horseshoe is a 33,200 km² area located to the west of Lake Ontario including the Greater Toronto Area. Please see Map 3.2 in Statistics Canada, 2013, “Measuring ecosystem goods and services in Canada,” Human Activity and the Environment, Catalogue no. 16-201-X.

Cropland is land producing field crops, hay, fruit, vegetables, sod and nursery crops.

A net carbon sink absorbs or takes up more carbon than it releases as part of the carbon cycle.