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 [...]
We’re excited to introduce a new publication series: ABMI Science in Progress. Under this banner, we’ll release updates on work that’s currently taking place in the ABMI’s Science Centre—work that’s raw and will continue to evolve, but which we think our readers will find interesting in the meantime. This is the first installment, with the [...]
Guest blogger and ABMI collaborator Dr. Jessamyn Manson of the University of Alberta updates us on recent research into the relationship between wild bees and canola. At the peak of summer, your garden is probably buzzing with life! Alberta is home to nearly 300 documented species of wild bees, from large, charismatic bumble bees to [...]
Development in the boreal forest is changing the way Grey Wolves move and hunt. What will this mean for the endangered Woodland Caribou? Travelling from Edmonton to Calgary, most people take a four-lane highway instead of a maze of back roads. After all, a direct route to their destination leaves more time for actually doing [...]
Tucked away in the basement of the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science at the University of Alberta is the ABMI’s Geospatial Centre and its team of Air Photo Interpreters. Kitted out in 3D glasses, they produce the most sophisticated and detailed land and vegetation cover data available for the province of Alberta. The data coming [...]
As we know, Alberta is experiencing a long-term change in climate. The last 100 years has already seen an increase of about 1.4oC in average annual temperature, and it’s predicted that, over the next 40 years, the average temperature will increase at an even faster rate.[1] The ABMI has been working to understand climate change [...]
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 [...]