Sometimes, monitoring biodiversity is a giant game of hide and seek. Some species are rare. Others are elusive. In both cases, these types of species can be extremely difficult to monitor. The ABMI’s monitoring system was designed to track changes in groups of common plants and animals, not specifically to follow the status of individual [...]
Mapping rare plants and their habitats in Alberta’s Lower Athabasca region may help industry plan developments mindfully. In Alberta’s northeastern Lower Athabasca region, famously known for its bitumen-rich oil sands, there are more than industrial giants digging in the dirt for treasure. It’s also home to a treasure trove of extraordinary plant life, like the [...]
In the summer of 2012, we spent a day with an ABMI field crew in southern Alberta and we observed the painstaking process involved in monitoring terrestrial field sites. More than that, we saw a wide range of beautiful vascular plants that makes this part of Alberta unique and rich in biodiversity. Watch the video here. Thanks [...]
Every spring, in the final weeks of April, the offices of the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute in Vegreville seem a bit like somebody kicked over an anthill. Staff are scrambling to get everything organized before sending dozens of field technicians out across the province — from the Canadian Shield in the far northeast to the [...]
In early January, Brandi Mogge, Land Access Manager for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), headed to southern Alberta from the ABMI’s offices at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on her first trip to visit landowners and request access to their land. She was prepared to spend her week formally explaining why the ABMI [...]
Finally, “A Day in the Life of an ABMI Terrestrial Crew” is online. It shows a typical day monitoring in southern Alberta with some examples of biodiversity we found in the field. (Here is a link to a slideshow/video: https://vimeo.com/49414801 password:abmi1234) Note: we weren’t able to identify all of the plants, if anyone knows the identity [...]
UofA and the Royal Alberta Museum were hotbeds of activity again this year as taxonomic staff from the RAM (ABMI’s Processing Centre) and our summer monitoring field crews came together to clean, sort and identify thousands of specimens found in the field. At the UofA, the monitoring crews were divided into three labs: invertebrates, lichens and [...]
A huge congratulations to everyone at the Monitoring Centre for successfully completing wetland and terrestrial monitoring for the summer season 2012! Field season wrapped up on Friday July 27th, and despite a wide variety of challenges throughout the season, field staff were able to complete inventories at over 150 sites from across the province. They [...]