Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year! Thank you for your ongoing interest in, and support of, our work. The past year was a busy one for the ABMI, and we look forward to staying in touch in 2023 as we continue to share new data, tools, webinars, collaborations, and stories about Alberta’s [...]
If you follow the ABMI’s social media, you’ll already know about our What does biodiversity mean to you? writing contest. If not, we have news for you: The ABMI has a writing contest, in partnership with Alberta Views Magazine! The rules are simple: Submit an original 500 – 750 word essay on what biodiversity means [...]
The following is a guest post from Dr. Jenet Dooley, Wetland Ecologist with the ABMI. February 2nd is World Wetlands Day. Observed internationally since its launch in 1997, it’s a day to “raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet”. The date commemorates the adoption of the Ramsar Convention [...]
The ABMI’s Caribou Monitoring Unit is on a roll! Fresh from the recent release of new research on the relationship between moose hunting, predatory wolves, and threatened woodland caribou, the CMU is at it again. This time, they’ve found a promising new way to prioritize the restoration of abandoned cutlines. Read on for the full [...]
Populations of the endangered woodland caribou are in decline, and the ABMI’s Caribou Monitoring Unit (CMU) at the University of Alberta is part of collaborative efforts to understand the problem and find sustainable solutions. New research—led by CMU manager Dr. Rob Serrouya, supported by Dr. Stan Boutin of the U of A / ABMI, and [...]
Natural ecosystems provide many benefits—services like clean drinking water, timber, and productive harvests. Each of these “ecosystem services” is the product of complex interactions among species, landscapes, and people. This complexity also means that ecosystem services can be difficult to measure and assess. Because their value is hard to quantify, ecosystem services may be ignored in [...]
Photo credit: Aerial view of Fort McMurray by Sara Venskaitis. Picture this. You’re flying in a small plane in the skies above Alberta somewhere near Edmonton. You look down… you see a tract of native aspen parkland, bisected by a road, and rimmed by farm fields and newly established residential areas. Pockets of industrial activity [...]
Want to earn points for doing good things for the environment? Play Eco-earner, an ecosystem services game that promotes the concept of earning points for demonstrating good environmental management, using game principles and technology. When we think of ecosystem services we often focus on the biophysical aspects of the environment. However, an important aspect of [...]