The ABMI will wrap-up our 3-year collaborative Biodiversity Management and Climate Change Adaptation project at the end of June 2015. This project has examined the potential impacts of climate change on Alberta’s biodiversity and developed knowledge and tools to support the management of Alberta’s species and ecosystems in a changing climate. We’ve delved into a wide range of topics, including: the vulnerability of [...]
All posts in Biodiversity
Say ‘Cheese’! ABMI Implements New Monitoring Protocols Using Camera Traps
Gathering reliable measurements of animal populations is a long-standing challenge for wildlife biologists around the world. Estimating population size and density requires researchers to count individual specimens; this is an especially difficult task when working with species that move (sometimes over large geographic ranges) or live in difficult-to-traverse landscapes, like Alberta’s Rocky Mountains or its [...]
Finding Rare Plants in Alberta’s Northeast
This story originally appeared in the Alberta Native Plant Council‘s newsletter, Iris, published November 2014. If a botanist went for a walk in the Lower Athabasca region of Alberta, how likely would it be that he would encounter a rare plant species? How long in kilometres or time would she have to walk to find one? If [...]
Better Environmental Management Through Monitoring: The Story of the Yellow Rail in the Lower Athabasca
This story originally appeared in AEMERA’s Newsletter, published March 31, 2015. “The approval holder shall provide a plan or participate in the development of a plan for the monitoring and mitigation of the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) by [given date] to the satisfaction of the Director…” – Approval condition for oil sands mine project The [...]
The Recovery of Porsild’s Bryum
Porsild’s Bryum Provincial Recovery Team video by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Along the Whitehorse Creek in Whitehorse Wildland Park in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains lives an Endangered* species. It’s green and cushy, and it loves water. Porsild’s Bryum is one of more than 1,000 species of moss found in Canada. Like many moss species, [...]
A Dragon in Alberta!? ABMI Vascular Plant Taxonomist Records New Orchid Sighting in Alberta.
It was a day like any other when Varina Crisfield, the ABMI’s Vascular Plant Taxonomist, showed up for work at the ABMI’s Processing Centre at the Royal Alberta Museum*. Little did she know, she was about to achieve something few Alberta botanists can expect to do these days: identify a new species record for the [...]
Alberta’s Wonderful World of Bryophytes
From upper left (clockwise): Sphagnum magellanicum, photo: M. Luth; Polytrichum commune, photo: M. Luth; Anthelia juratzkana (liverwort), photo: R. Caners; Scorpidium scorpioides, photo: R. Caners; Brachythecium rivulare, photo: R. Caners Part 1: Introducing Bryophytes It’s a beautiful spring day and you are walking through a lush, green boreal forest somewhere in northern Alberta. The sunlight [...]
Blazing Ahead of Climate Change – The Potential for Assisted Migration of Alberta’s Native Plants
It’s the Goldilocks principle. All species, including plants, animals, and fungi, are uniquely adapted to a specific combination of climate and environmental conditions that they need to grow, reproduce and thrive – things need to be “just right”. If the environment changes, species have two choices: they can either stay where they are and adapt [...]