Business and Biodiversity. Two words you don’t often expect to see together. At the ABMI, we understand that functional economies are dependent on functional ecosystems. But, we probably aren’t surprised when we hear the rhetoric that we can’t “afford” to protect the environment when the economy is weak. So, it was heartening for me to [...]
All posts in Biodiversity
Funky Mites and the Garden
They might look a little like aliens from a 1960s science fiction film, but soil mites are important, often overlooked and under-appreciated aspects of biodiversity. But the Royal Alberta Museum’s Dave Walter (Taxonomic Advisor / Acarologist) is out to change all of that.
Trout Fodder
Our very own Rob Hinchliffe (Lab Supervisor/Aquatic Invertebrate Taxonomist) at the Royal Alberta Museum truly lives his work. As an avid fly fisherman, he knows the streams of Alberta… and most (if not all) of what lives in them. Lucky for us and other Albertans, he documents his experience in his blog Trout Fodder “Musings of [...]
Taking Bees for Granted: Bumble Bees in Decline
One of the basic principles underlying the ABMI is that one cannot know if species abundances are changing, if one does not know what they were to start with. For example, many readers of this blog may have heard of the worldwide decline of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), our agricultural pollinator mainstay. We have [...]