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Special Issue of The Canadian Entomologist celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Biological Survey of Canada

Submissions currently are being solicited for a special issue of  The Canadian Entomologist (TCE) to be published in 2017. The special issue celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Biological Survey of Canada! It will be on the theme of “Terrestrial Arthropod Diversity in Canada: Celebrating 40 years of the Biological Survey of Canada”. In this context, “terrestrial” is defined to include upland, wetland and aquatic systems. If you wish to contribute to this special issue, please contact Dr. David Langor (david.langor@canada.ca) by October 1st, 2016.
In recognition of the 150th anniversary of TCE submissions are being solicited for another special issue, see the Entomological Society of Canada Blog for more details: (https://escsecblog.com/2016/07/06/the-canadian-entomologist-call-for-special-issues/)

2 Comments Posted on by donnagiberson Uncategorized

Insect Biodiversity Stories in the News

Insects come out on top in 2009 New Species list

On Jan. 19, 2012, e-science news reported that the 2011 State of Observed Species (SOS) report had been released the previous day by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, giving the data for numbers of new species reported in 2009.  In that year, 19,232 species were indicated as new to science, and more than half of them were Insects.  The report also gave results for the full decade, 2000 to 2009, reporting over 176,000 new species during the decade.

The actual numbers for 2009 are 9,738 insect species, and 1,487 arachnids. There were also 2,184 vascular plants, seven birds, and 41 mammals in the “new” list as well.

According to the e-science news article,  Quentin Wheeler, an ASU entomologist and founding director of the species institute also reported that the number of new species in 2009 is about twice as many species as were known in the lifetime of Carolus Linnaeus.

The SOS report is available online at http://species.asu.edu.  Based on the colourful “word cloud” in the report, the top group appears to be the beetles…

Source:  e-science news:  http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/01/19/insects.top.latest.inventory.newly.discovered.species

2 Comments Posted on by pjcrawford Uncategorized

Biological Survey of Canada Symposium

The Biological Survey organized a symposium at the 2011 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of Canada and the Acadian Entomological Society held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on November 6 – 9.

The presentations given are listed below.  Thanks to the authors for allowing us to provide links to their presentations.

How To Complete A Biological Survey of Canada – Felix Sperling (University of Alberta), Dave McCorquodale (Cape Breton University), and Donna Giberson (University of Prince Edward Island)   

Biomonitoring 2.0: Generating And Harnessing Data On An Epic Scale for Ecosystem Assessment – Donald Baird (Environment Canada at Canadian Rivers Institute, University of New Brunswick)

Take Care Of The Zeros And The Numbers Will Take Care Of Themselves – Robert Branton (Ocean Tracking Network, Dalhousie University)

Canadensys – Mobilizing Biodiversity Data Across Canada – Peter Desmet (University of Montreal)

The Biological Survey Of Canada: An Outsider’s Wish List – Dezene Huber (University of Northern British Columbia)

The Maritimes Butterfly Atlas – A Citizen Science Case Study – John Klymco (Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre)

Biodiversity For Everyone: Perspectives On Accessibility -Barb Sharanowski (University of Manitoba)

Demand Driven Biodiversity Data. Towards Expanded Investments In Data Publication And Development in Canada – Doug Hyde (NatureServe Canada)

Will Biodiversity Research Become Extinct In The 21st Century? – Chris Majka (Nova Scotia Museum)

Names Are The Key To The Big New Biology: A Bottom-Up Solution To Creating A Macroscope – David Shorthouse (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA)

COSEWIC And Insect Biodiversity Surveys – Lawrence Packer (York University)

3 Comments Posted on by felixsperling Uncategorized

Biodiversity data “publication” workshop in Ottawa

Well, I’m back now from a workshop in Ottawa on biodiversity that was held late last week, and it was very interesting. It was organized by the Canadensys group (U of Montreal), NatureServe Canada, and the Federal Biodiversity Information Parnership (FBIP).

The aim was first to move toward a more coordinated network of networks that deal with biodiversity data publication in some way. About 30 people representing a great range of institutions and groups were there. To keep things manageable for discussions, as well as due to the relatively short time to get it organized, it was by invitation only. But it was heartening to see that 3 of the board members of the BSC were there (Joe Shorthouse, Dave Langor and myself), as well as a recent board member (Chris Buddle), all invited for different reasons.

The second aim was to bring people together to get feedback for an application to the NCE – KM (knowledge mobilization) grant program. The application is in this instance led by Canadensys but with full participation by NatureServe Canada and FBIP and full support by numerous other groups. We did indeed hear a lot of well-articulated viewpoints from people representing a spectrum of data providers (e.g. CNC-AAFC) to data users (e.g. mining industry, even PHAC). One of the clear priorities was metadata. In practical terms that means inventory of what databases exist, as well as what they contain.

So I think that the workshop was really productive and, as one of the participants as well as a co-organizer, I was encouraged and grateful for the number of people who took the time to participate, some coming from substantial distances. It is clear that there is a strong and diverse assemblage of people concerned about many aspects of biodiversity data across all taxa, and especially its publication (the newly broadened term that also includes releasing data on the internet). Now it will be a worthy challenge to help the interactions – and data flow – among them to be more efficient. One of the other messages that was heard loud and clear was that it is not enough to just dump raw data on a website – interaction with user groups is essential to refine the fields that are shown and to design utilities to make the biodiversity data more digestible. I hope that anyone reading this blog post will keep that feedback coming – just click on the “Reply” feature below.

But, to get back to the reason for the BSC blog site, it was also heartening to see the significant role played by the Biological Survey of Canada, in partnership alongside a number of other major players. Things are moving forward!

Felix Sperling

Leave a comment Posted on by rosegalls Uncategorized

Response to Greg Pohl

Many thanks to Greg Pohl for his useful comments on the BSC. With the Canadian Museum of Nature removing their funding support for the BSC, it is evident that we need to do many things differently in the future. I agree with Greg that we could start by examining our name. Seeing we have restricted ourselves to studying the arthropods of Canada for over 35 years, why not consider something like “Arthropods Survey of Canada”? Furthermore, it is time that we start considering the aquatic arthropods of equal importance. Greg is also right that we need to start collecting information on the arthropods of various regions of Canada. Canada is comprised of 15 Ecozones and 194 Ecoregions, none of which were considered by Danks in his 1979 book. Imagine if we had a list of the arthropods in each of these Ecoregions. I would love to join forces with the Sault Ste. Marie Forestry Laboratory, for example, and begin making a list of the insects in Algonquin-Lake Nipissing of the Boreal Shield Ecozone. Or, imagine a list of arthropods of the Eureka Hills Ecoregion of northern Ellesmere Island which is in the Northern Arctic Ecozone. A worth while start could be to describe some of the characteristic species of each Ecoregion. David Larson has retired in the Cypress Uplands Ecoregion of the Prairies Ecozone and has already amassed an amazing collection of insects found on his ranch and in the adjoining Cypress Hills. Imagine if he had a place to display the results of his efforts. Thanks again. Greg.

Cheers

Joe Shorthouse