• i
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Conserving biodiversity: Bioblitzes focus on the variety of life in the national parks

Tightly defined in time (24 to 48 hours) and space, a bioblitz (also bioquest or foray) brings the diverse capabilities of local natural historians, professional and amateur scientists, and students to the national parks en masse to explore, share findings, and educate the public about biodiversity. In the following articles, organizers with the National Park Service (NPS) parks and Research Learning Centers and their partners share brief summaries of the bioblitz events that took place in 2006 in the national parks. These park units are within coastal, piedmont, mountain, and urban ecosystems. The bioblitzes focused on diverse, often understudied, taxa such as fungi, beetles, and spiders.

Bioblitzes represent important contributions to systematic inventory and monitoring programs and can provide basic data needed for resource protection and conservation, which enhances park managers’ abilities to protect resources. The bioblitzes often focus on groups not surveyed through the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. Though they do not comprehensively inventory a park’s resources, bioblitzes develop important information on species occurrences, richness estimates, and identification of rare, endemic, and invasive species. Such data address the unfunded inventory needs of parks and are an excellent way to identify and help prioritize possible monitoring needs. Among the hundreds of species counted in each event are surprising discoveries of not only rare species but also species new to the park, county, state, region, and to science.

A bioblitz enhances public awareness of biodiversity in national parks. Each bioblitz in 2006 was associated with public programs to build awareness and understanding and to create advocacy for park resources. Bioblitzes facilitate educational and intellectual interactions among participants. They offer students hands-on experience and interaction with career scientists, especially taxonomists, whose numbers are declining in today’s institutions but whose skills are needed for managing biodiversity. Broad and diverse media coverage of these events offers excellent, far-reaching venues to discuss conservation and park issues. Additionally, educational programs and curriculum development can follow these bioblitzes. Great Smoky Mountains National Park staff created a high school mentoring program that involved their "Beetle Blitz" researchers.

Bioblitzes not only benefit from volunteers but actually rely on the donation of time from professional taxonomists and experienced amateurs. These partnerships are vital to the parks and increase the richness of the bioblitz experience by bringing together different skills. Partners share the common goals of greater understanding to protect park resources and new interactive and educational outreach opportunities. Volunteers make the events possible through their support and participation on the teams.

Congaree SpiderBlitz
By Theresa A. Thom and David C. Shelley

As part of ongoing research and inventory work at Congaree National Park (South Carolina) the Old-Growth Bottomland Forest Research and Education Center hosted the first ever SpiderBlitz in October 2006. Dr. Robert Wolff, an entomologist at Clemson University, led the program with the assistance of park staff. Volunteers helped with this full day of data collection, and their efforts made the SpiderBlitz a great success. A total of 41 citizen scientists from South Carolina and Georgia donated 135 hours as they learned about, collected, and examined spiders. Following a brief introduction to spiders and how to collect them, citizen scientist teams collected spiders in various park habitats in morning, afternoon, and evening sessions. Specimens were brought back to the Research and Education Center lab, where they were examined under dissecting microscopes. Preliminary results indicate that more than 150 species were collected, with roughly 40 species newly documented in the park. The Congaree SpiderBlitz was the first of what is hoped will be many bioblitzes to be held at Congaree National Park.

Theresa Thom
Ecologist/Director, Old-Growth Bottomland Forest Research and Education Center,
Congaree National Park, South Carolina

David Shelley
Education Coordinator, Old-Growth Bottomland Forest Research and Education Center,
Congaree National Park, South Carolina

Fungal Forays at Point Reyes National Seashore
By Ben Becker and Christie Anastasia

More than 200 citizen scientists participated in the first ever Fungal Forays at Point Reyes National Seashore, California. This rapid biodiversity assessment was designed to sample fungi from habitats throughout the park to help expand our understanding of fungal distribution and biodiversity. Point Reyes National Seashore is typical of most national parks with a good inventory of its vertebrates and vascular plants, but with little knowledge of its fungal biota. The goal of the Fungal Forays is to address this need and produce a useful database for ecologists while making basic knowledge of the region’s fungi publicly accessible. Taxonomists from UC–Berkeley, Humboldt State University, and San Francisco State University and experts from the Mycological Societies of San Francisco and Sonoma counties joined many other enthusiasts and even several park visitors, who participated in the study to round out their park visit. So far the forays have increased the park’s species list from 110 to more than 440, with at least 8 species new to science. Because of the ephemeral nature of fungal fruiting structures, the Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center and its scientific partners are repeating the surveys in 2007 and 2008 and expect to find many additional park records.

Ben Becker
Director and Marine Ecologist, Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center,
Point Reyes National Seashore, California

Christie Anastasia
Education Coordinator, Pacific Coast Science and Learning Center,
Point Reyes National Seashore, California

New bioblitz discoveries in national parks near the nation’s capital
By Brent Steury, Stephanie Flack, Mary Travaglini, Arthur Evans, Giselle Mora–Bourgeois, and P. Scott Bell

The George Washington Memorial Parkway and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (Virginia and Maryland) teamed up with The Nature Conservancy’s Maryland/DC Chapter on 24–25 June 2006 to conduct a bioblitz on national park lands within the Potomac River Gorge, a 15-mile river corridor that is recognized as one of the most biologically significant natural areas in the eastern United States.

A total of 135 volunteer biologists and naturalists formed 18 field research teams and represented 30 institutions, including the Maryland and Virginia Natural Heritage programs, the Smithsonian Institution, and area universities. The teams focused their surveys on historically undersurveyed groups of invertebrates and nonvascular plants.

Highlights of the 30-hour search include a fly species new to science; new Virginia records for 51 beetles, five true bugs, a fly, a bee, and a copepod; a state rare dragonfly previously unrecorded from the parks; and hundreds of other new park records, including species of land snails, crayfish, flatworms, spiders, syrphid flies, caddisflies, stoneflies, an antlion, wasps, true bugs, moths, beetles, fungi, slime molds, algae, mosses, and vascular plants.

Brent Steury
Supervisory Biologist and Natural Resources Program Manager, George Washington Memorial Parkway

Stephanie Flack
Potomac Gorge Project Director, The Nature Conservancy in Maryland/District of Columbia, Bethesda, Maryland

Mary Travaglini
Potomac Gorge Habitat Restoration Manager, The Nature Conservancy in Maryland/District of Columbia, Bethesda, Maryland

Arthur Evans
Research Associate, Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution;
and Department of Recent Invertebrates, Virginia Museum of Natural History, Richmond, Virginia

Giselle Mora–Bourgeois
Science Education Coordinator, Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance,
National Capital Region, Washington, DC

P. Scott Bell
Acting Natural Resource Program Manager, C&O Canal National Historical Park, Maryland

Great Smoky Mountains Bioquest
By Paul Super and Susan Sachs

Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina) held its first bioquest in 2000 as part of its All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory. From 2000 through 2006, more than 30 bioquests have been held, focusing on both taxonomic groups (beetles, fungi, lichens, slime molds) and specific habitats (karst and caves, leaf litter, and high-elevation sites). Over the years the logistics for and focus of bioquests have changed. Most bioquests are now several days long and include better follow-up on difficult identifications and more geo-referenced data for common species. As an important part of bioquests researchers bring their students to study with other experts. Serendipitous results of bioquests include finding new, potentially invasive nonnative species and unusual phenomena (e.g., deformed, acid-loving diatoms in high-elevation springs).

The Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) Quest is an example of the increased efficiency and productivity of successive bioquests. In 2000 a Lepidoptera Quest brought together researchers, adult volunteers, and high school students to collect 706 species in 24 hours, including 25 undescribed species, producing a checklist. In 2004 a Lepidoptera Quest collected fewer species over four days, but 500 species were digitally photographed, 642 species were submitted for DNA sequencing, and more than 300 species were preserved cryogenically. The 2004 quest produced more than 3,000 geo-referenced records as the researchers are accompanied by volunteers who record GPS locations and associated metadata.

Paul Super
Science Coordinator, Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at Purchase Knob,
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina

Susan Sachs
Education Coordinator, Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center at Purchase Knob,
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina

Acadia National Park Bioblitz
By Jim McKenna

Acadia National Park (Maine) has hosted four annual bioblitzes to document the biodiversity of lesser-known taxonomic groups within the park (ants, butterflies and moths, beetles, and flies). Acadia’s bioblitzes have given managers important baselines for use in park management. For example, an Acadia bioblitz is a single 24-hour event conducted in 6% of the park’s landholdings. Despite these narrow spatial and temporal boundaries, the fiscal year 2006 Coleoptera bioblitz collected 310 species of beetles, 60 of which were new records for the park and 48 of which were new records for the state of Maine.

Jim McKenna
Coordinator, Schoodic Education and Research Center, Acadia National Park, Maine

Beetle Blitz at Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
By Mary Raczko and Jessica Rykken

In 2006 a 24-hour Beetle Blitz contributed to the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (Massachusetts) All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI). The park organized the event and partnered with the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center, and the Island Alliance. Despite consistent rain for the first 18 hours of the event, 30 people, including professional researchers, amateur entomologists, students, a representative from Taiwan National Parks, and a youth group from Ohio, collected 205 beetles from two islands. At least 20 of the 70 species collected are new records for the park. On Thompson Island, citizen scientists were led by park rangers and helped collect specimens while learning about the "micro-wilderness" of the islands. A smaller group of participants braved the wind and rain to venture to Lovells Island by boat for more collecting. Public contributions to the ATBI continued throughout the year through school programs, nature walks, and camping programs. Volunteers will soon be able to follow up on the results of their efforts via a publicly accessible database.

Mary Raczko
Partnership Liaison, Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, Massachusetts

Jessica Rykken
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Canyon country critters discovered at Canyon de Chelly National Monument
By Elaine F. Leslie

Situated in the heart of the Navajo Reservation, Canyon de Chelly National Monument (Arizona) initiated two bioblitzes in 2005 and followed up with coordinated All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) efforts in 2006. Park staff united with the surrounding Navajo Nation volunteer community of Chinle and Tsaile to conduct inventories of raptors, riparian avifauna, bats, and invertebrates. Diné College and Northern Arizona University students joined in the work. Park staff and students are being trained in the methods of field collection, preservation, and cataloging. In 2006 alone the park collected more than 5,000 specimens, including 470 arthropod taxa, 6 bat species new to the park, and several raptors that were once thought to be migratory but are now confirmed as residents.

The park, with the assistance of Neil S. Cobb, director of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research, will feature a 2007 ATBI workshop to teach students of all ages about the natural history of species like tarantulas and scorpions, resulting in an expected fivefold increase in collection of arthropods by the end of the summer.

Elaine Leslie
Chief, Native Species and Ecosystems Branch, Biological Resource Management Division, Fort Collins, Colorado

Butterfly Blitz continues to add species at Mammoth Cave National Park
By Kurt Helf

Ten amateur lepidopterists; Rick Olson and Kurt Helf, ecologists with Mammoth Cave Science and Resources Management Division; and Jeffrey Marcus, assistant professor at Western Kentucky University, participated in the second Butterfly Blitz at Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky). The blitz was held 7–9 July 2006 and added 23 species and likely hundreds of moth species to the park list. In addition, Drs. Marcus and Helf helped the public learn names and characteristics of butterflies and moths. Twenty-five visitors, ages 6 to 60, armed with nets, patrolled the park trails during the day to observe, capture, and identify butterflies. They checked baited traps left the night before for additional moths and butterflies. In the evenings, Dr. Marcus used a mercury-vapor lamp and white sheet to attract night-flying moths. During the first Butterfly Blitz (in 2005), researchers, students, and visitors documented 58 butterfly and 800 moth species, with hundreds of additional specimens waiting to be identified. They discovered one moth new to science, one rare Olympia marble butterfly (found only in four populations in Kentucky), and two moth species that are each found in only one other location in the state.

Kurt Helf
Invertebrate Ecologist, Cumberland Piedmont Network