This post will be updated as new participants are added... Message board and button on the way!
In honor of National Wildlife Week, April 21 - 29, I am inviting bloggers from all walks to participate in the First Annual Blogger Bioblitz, where bloggers from across the country will choose a wild or not-so-wild area and find how many of each different species - plant, animal, fungi and anything in between - live in a certain area within a certain time.
Pick a neat little area that you are relatively familiar with and is small enough that you or the group can handle - a small thicket, a pond, a section of stream, or even your backyard - and bring along some taxonomic keys or an Audubon guide, or if you're lucky enough, an expert in local flora and fauna. Set a time limit. Try to identify the different species of organisms that you find as well as the number of each species that you find. Take pictures if you have a digital camera, compile your numbers, make observations, set up your post however you wish as long as you include your numbers in a digestible fashion (I'll have more details on that later) - then submit it to me and I'll include it on the list. We will also be tallying total numbers of each species found, and then a grand total. There has also been talk of coding an interactive Google Map with distribution information, geotagging regions with a blogger's submitted information.
This is not meant to be a contest, nor is meant to be a hard source of taxonomic data. It is meant to be a fun little excursion to highlight little pockets of biodiversity across the world. I should have a 160x160 button available for distribution in a couple days.
This event was inspired by the National Wildlife Federation's own project, the Wildlife Watch. They will be posting a downloadable list of springtime critters in the near future that may be of use.
So far we have the following participants:
- Adventures In Ethics & Science
- Living the Scientific Life
- 10,000 Birds
- Greg Laden
- Burning Silo
- Behavioral Ecology Blog
- NEW Bootstrap Analysis
- NEW The Infinite Sphere
- NEW Oaksong's Nemeton
- NEW Peeking into the rock
Contact me at thevoltagegate [at] gmail.com or leave a comment on this thread with your e-mail address if you'd like to be added to the list. Participants will be kept informed by mailing lists. I will pass on more info as it becomes available.
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Comments
Sadly, the majority of life will go undocumented unless you plan to make microscope slides of every square inch of soil or do some metagenomics. It would be cool if someone with a good understanding of microscopic life could take a stab at the non-macro-dioversity.
Posted by: RPM | March 26, 2007 09:15 AM
Yeah, I agree. I'm tempted to take some water/soil samples myself, but time is a bit of a constraint. I would love some volunteers...
Posted by: Jeremy Bruno | March 26, 2007 09:35 AM
What a cool idea... count me in!
Posted by: Bill LaLonde | March 26, 2007 10:10 AM
Great idea! I'll be joining in myself and surveying New Brunswick, NJ.
Posted by: Laelaps | March 26, 2007 10:26 AM