Péter Sólymos, a statistical ecologist with the ABMI, Boreal Avian Modelling project, and the U of A, brings us a guest post about his team’s new paper on point count methods for sampling boreal birds. Humans attach more value to rare things, but in conservation biology, rarity often implies an elevated risk. For example, smaller [...]
Are you a nature enthusiast, novice naturalist, or do you simply enjoy exploring the outdoors? Collecting and sharing our experiences in nature has come a long, long way. What began with pencils, notepads and sketches has evolved into an incredibly advanced tool that fits in your pocket—say hello to Alberta’s brand-new citizen science app, NatureLynx! [...]
A modified version of this post recently appeared as part of the ABMI’s regular feature in the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists’ newsletter, BIOS Quarterly. Here at the ABMI, we like to say that you manage what you measure—that the more we know about our living resources, the more likely we’ll be to responsibly manage [...]
A new predictive model using ABMI data suggests that Alberta’s boreal mixedwood forest could decline by at least 50% in the next 100 years due to climate change and wildfire. Change is a funny thing. Sometimes it’s blatantly obvious. Other times, like the old fable of the frog and the boiling water, you only see [...]
The ABMI recently released a new report on the status of human footprint in Alberta. Depending on your particular interests, you were probably struck by different aspects of the report—maybe the fact that 78% of central Alberta is now under human footprint, or the fact that in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area, that number is [...]
On February 7, 2018, the ABMI released a new report on human footprint in Alberta. While some media outlets provided well-informed, balanced coverage of the report, others resorted to sensationalist headlines that unfortunately misrepresented the report’s key findings. The following is the ABMI’s response to this inaccurate coverage. By Jim Herbers and Tara Narwani; Alberta [...]
Between 1999 and 2015, human activity in Alberta visibly converted over 23,000 square kilometres of native ecosystems into residential, recreational, or industrial landscapes, an area 3.5 times the size of Banff National Park. Feb 9 Update: This report received extensive coverage in the media. While some media outlets provided well-informed, balanced coverage, others resorted to [...]
2017 was another successful year for the ABMI, as we once again monitored Alberta’s biodiversity from A(rdenville) to Z(ama City). We’d just like to say ‘thanks’ to you, our friends, supporters, and collaborators. We look forward to working with and for you again in 2018.