Includes persistent or regularly occurring waves, layers, water masses, upwellings, stratifications, and fronts that are defined by patterns of water velocity, physical properties, and biogeochemical properties; these features are listed and defined in the Layer, Hydroform, and Biogeochemical Feature layers of the Water Column Component of CMECS. Distributions are records of currents, physical properties, or biogeochemical water properties, often based on shipboard surveys or coastal monitoring programs, and maps of currents or water property climatology, which indicate the expected locations of features under present conditions or apply a classification structure like that of CMECS. Assessments are data that provide information about the ecological or economic values, impacts, drivers, connections, or functions of water column features in their present distributions. Predictions are the results of models projecting future changes to currents or other persistent oceanographic features (for example, clines, stratification, connectivity, linkages, and zones of separation) due to climate change, ice-cap melt, and changing freshwater inputs; models predicting the ecological or economic impacts of these changes; and scenario-testing models comparing ecological or economic outcomes of different management actions.