The ABMI’s camera-trapping project led by Ecologist Cole Burton continues to run well with masses of photos coming in. Check out the new gallery dedicated to some lovely shots taken with the camera traps. The project will continue until early fall. Watch this space for updates and more photos. Remember to cast your vote on [...]
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 [...]
What is it like to monitor a wetland in southern Alberta? What do wetland monitoring crews actually do? What do the different protocols look like in action? In an attempt to answer these and other burning questions, our Information Coordinator, Jill Smith and our Communications Coordinator, Sonya Poller visited Ciara Sharpe and Emily Jansen, one [...]
Aquatic Invertebrate Protocol Update An updated protocol for processing aquatic invertebrates has been posted on the ABMI website thanks to Rob Hinchliffe, Lab Coordinator, Aquatic Invertebrate Taxonomist. The document also includes valuable information for aquatic invertebrate identification. Is a picture worth a thousand species? The Science Centre’s Dr. Erin Bayne peer-reviewed article “Is a picture [...]
Over the past two years, the ABMI has been working closely with representatives from Canadian Forces Base Suffield on the development of a License Agreement which would allow for long term access for the ABMI to complete our field surveys on the military base. On June 1, 2012, the agreement was fully executed after being [...]
The ABMI, the Ecological Monitoring Committee for the Lower Athabasca (EMCLA), the Bayne lab (Biological Sciences, U of A), and Bird Studies Canada have been running a pilot field project since March to test new protocols for monitoring specific rare species in the oil sands area. The focal species for this year’s work were the [...]
The ABMI is currently a member of the Prairie Conservation Forum (PCF)—a forum that brings together multiple organizations to foster discussion and engagement on southern conservation issues. The PCF meets three times a year and has members from a broad range of backgrounds, including government, NGO’s, and academia. The Forum generally has a day of [...]
The ABMI is currently exploring an exciting new way to monitor mammals throughout the province—camera trapping! Since the ABMI’s inception we have monitored mammals through winter tracking—walking a 10 km long transect near each ABMI site during appropriate snow conditions and identifying any snow tracks we encounter.