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magazine / jun10
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June 2010 issue |
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
It’s, it’s, a bioblitz
On a crisp, clear weekend last September, more
than 100 people of all ages and backgrounds gathered
at the Bell Woodland Preserve, a bushlot in Lanark
County 50 kilometres west of Parliament Hill. The gathering
had a single intention: to count as many different living organisms
as possible in this 38-hectare patch of deciduous forest
on the Canadian Shield. The land was donated to the Nature
Conservancy of Canada a decade ago by one Halcyone Bell,
owner since 1948. Hosted by the Mississippi Valley Field
Naturalists (MVFN) from 3 to 9 p.m. Saturday and from dawn
to 4 p.m. Sunday, this was the first Bell Bushlot Bioblitz.
The upland sections of the preserve are dominated by sugar
maples, with other hardwoods, including ironwood, basswood,
black cherry and white birch, adding variety. Black ash, white
cedar and yellow birch punctuate the lowland swamp. Red and
silver maples surround a small pond. The trees alone exhibit
impressive diversity.
Led by 23 field biologists, the volunteer army of naturalists,
pro and amateur, novice and knowledgeable, headed out for
hour-long guided walks in search of as many organisms as possible:
fungi, mosses, liverworts, vascular plants, invertebrates,
amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals.
Each person kept a tally sheet, and some of the walks had
a special theme: collecting fungus for spore prints; calling seasonal
creatures of the night; checking small mammal traps;
counting butterflies and dragonflies. Amateur scientist Aleta
Karstad led the hunt for “invertebrates without six legs,” which
include spiders, millipedes and molluscs. Slugs — those shellfree,
tough-skinned, mucus-secreting terrestrial molluscs — are
Karstad’s specialty.
Guided by a list of species likely to be encountered and using
a coordinated data-acquisition system, people returned their tally
sheets to MVFN’s Tineke Kuiper (also known as the tally master)
to be reviewed by experts at the base camp. Every species sighted by each observer was noted, giving an indication of relative
abundance and adding to the validity of the observations.
The tally was revealed at the MVFN’s monthly meeting in
February: 526 species. Predictably, vascular plants (whose cells
conduct water, sap and nutrients) account for half the total.
Insect species — 63 of them — were the second most numerous.
And 17 non-insect invertebrates were spotted: four snails,
four millipedes, three spiders, two slugs, an earthworm, a clam,
a woodlouse and a mite.
What that bioblitz and this issue of Canadian Geographic
have in common is the overlap of two themes: biodiversity and
citizen science. The United Nations declared 2010 to be the
International Year of Biodiversity, calling it “a celebration of life
on Earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives.” Our cover
package, assembled by long-time contributing editor and former
Equinox editor Alan Morantz, is actually five biodiversity stories
in one. Candace Savage’s eloquent essay explores the concept,
while the other pieces examine its constituent levels: genetic,
species and ecosystem diversity. Fraser Los’s story on page 52,
about Ontario’s plan to plant 50 million trees in the country’s
most densely populated region, is really about maintaining the
genetic diversity of future forests. And one of the principal characters,
among a diverse cast of thousands, profiled in our annual
Environmental Scientists of the Year feature is none
other than Canada’s leading, albeit “amateur,” expert on slugs,
Aleta Karstad … a model citizen scientist. Enjoy the diversity!
— Eric Harris
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