No one likes the idea of wildlife being trapped between a rock and a hard place, but new research is showing that this may be the situation faced by bumblebees in warming temperatures. A study published recently in the journal Science [1] has drawn attention to the negative impacts of climate change on bumblebees in [...]
Conservation offsets are a legitimate and effective tool that governments across the world have used to support responsible resource development and environmental outcomes. Conservation offsets are the “measurable conservation outcomes that result from actions designed to compensate for significant residual adverse environmental impacts arising from development”[1]. Often offset programs require developers to first avoid, reduce [...]
Wetlands provide numerous benefits to society, including clean and abundant water, flood mitigation, and habitat for wildlife. These benefits have become increasingly apparent, as wetlands are lost across Alberta resulting in greater risk to our infrastructure and biodiversity. Starting with agricultural settlement in southern Alberta, it’s estimated that approximately 64% of wetlands have been permanently [...]
It’s here! The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) is pleased to announce the launch of the new and improved www.abmi.ca. The ABMI’s mission is “to track changes in Alberta’s wildlife and their habitats from border to border, and provide ongoing, relevant, scientifically credible information on Alberta’s living resources. For Alberta’s land-use decision makers. For Albertans.” The [...]
“In 10 years, the ABMI will likely increase our knowledge of Alberta’s Chironomids 10-fold over the previous 200 years. We want to know how effective Chironomids could be in biomonitoring, and we’re right on the doorstep of that kind of information.” – Rob Hinchliffe, Aquatic Invertebrate Taxonomist, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and the Royal Alberta Museum [...]
“It absolutely makes my day when I can look at a row of numbers and identify patterns that are ecologically meaningful.” – MC Roy, Wetland Ecologist, ABMI From an early age, it seems Marie-Claude Roy was destined to be a wetland ecologist. Now, as the resident wetland ecologist at the ABMI, Marie-Claude, or MC as [...]