All development activities have an impact on the environment, from large-scale open pit mining, to drilling for oil and gas, to clearing land for building a house. In the case of your house, you might want it to stay around for a long time. But in the case of oil and gas wellsites, we’d rather [...]
All posts in Biodiversity
The University of Alberta and the ABMI launch the Bioacoustic Unit!
The Bayne Lab at the University of Alberta and the ABMI’s Application Centre are pleased to announce a new partnership: The Bioacoustic Unit! Many people are concerned about their environment and the wildlife in it. However, for many wildlife species we don’t have the information we need to make informed decisions about natural resources and [...]
Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Science Symposium!
Some of the benefits provided by nature have a clear, recognized, and well-understood economic value (e.g., food and timber production), while others don’t (e.g., water purification, recreation). Continued provision of ecosystem services (especially those lacking clear economic value) and biodiversity in a growing province like Alberta is a big challenge for environmental managers and decision [...]
ABMI at the Royal Alberta Museum: Learning About Wetlands Through Aquatic Invertebrates from ABMI on Vimeo.
Underwater Storytellers: Understanding Wetlands by Studying Aquatic Invertebrates
Beneath the surface of Alberta’s wetlands lives a diverse community of aquatic invertebrates. For most of us, the species that call wetlands home only become recognizable after individuals reach their adult phase, and take the form of flying insects like dragonflies and mosquitoes. Taxonomists, however, like those working in the ABMI’s Processing Centre at the Royal Alberta [...]
Wetland Monitoring at the ABMI
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 [...]
Chironomids – A Case of Mistaken Identity
“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 [...]
Wetland Ecologist: Marie-Claude Roy
“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 [...]
The ABMI Photo Contest is Back!
Above: Elk Island National Park by Yuyu Yao It’s time to dust off your camera lenses and start snapping images: the ABMI’s second-annual photo contest is back! Help us tell the story of Alberta’s species, habitats and human land use through the most powerful storytelling tool: photography. We want to see what your Alberta looks [...]