ATBI Science Methods

• The All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is conducted using a wide variety of research methods. Scientists travel to the Park to do field work on their particular organisms.
  
  
• Bio-Quests or “Blitzes” are events that bring experts in a certain species group to the Park for a major collecting effort over a relatively short span of time.
  
  
  • During the course of a week or just over a long weekend, scientists, Park staff, and Discover Life in America (DLIA) volunteers canvas different ecological communities with the aim of generating a georeferenced list that usually include new Park records and even species new to science.
    
    
  • See the table below for more information about Bio-Quests.
    
    
• To participate, view the Events Calendar and then join the search by becoming a Volunteer.

An ATBI participant collects algae at the "Place of a Thousand Drips" along the Roaring Fork Nature Trail.

Photo by Steve Higdon.

Aquatic Insects

• Field work focuses on adult insects from 3 Orders – Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), Stoneflies (Plecoptera), and Caddisflies (Trichoptera).

ATBI Field Notes Data Input Forms

• Site & Collection Field Form
• Specimen Data Entry Form

Bee Collecting

• To find and identify the bees of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
• To make observations on the flowers visited by bees.

• “Beetle Blitz” - Search the Park in Coleoptera BioQuests.
• Beetle Wranglers of Deadwood - Find beetles living in dead wood samples.

Collecting Methods

• A wide variety of methods are used in the ATBI for collecting specimens.

Daddy Longlegs (Opiliones)

• If you like to prowl around old buildings this is right up your alley!

• Participants using GPS units, maps, and fern ID guides choose several different locations each year and walk the trails, setting up a 15 meter plot every 200 meters along the trail where they identify and count the varieties of ferns.

• Trail survey project to identify and locate 50-some species of mushrooms.

Collecting Land Snails

• The natural behavior of land snails can be observed best during warm, rainy nights when snails are most active, mid-spring to early summer, when nighttime temperatures are 60 degrees or above.
  

Owlet Moth (Noctuidae)

• While collecting will be conducted throughout the Park, emphasis will be on the higher elevations.
  

• Trail survey project to locate certain rare and unique flowers and shrubs.

Slime Molds

• Slime mold spores can be found throughout the Park on dry vegetation and in herbivorous animal droppings.

• Dragonflies and damselflies are colorful, intricately structured, have a unique flying style, and are harmless to humans. They are voracious predators of mosquitoes and small insects in both their aquatic larval and airborne adult stages.

• The purpose is to obtain data about the distribution of various species along the Park's trails.

• What life forms exist in treetops?
• What are the community dynamics of old growth forest canopies?
• Students from Central Missouri State University are attempting to answer these questions by using rope climbing techniques to explore the treetops of giant-sized trees in the Park .

Winter Moth Baiting

• Using a sweet, sticky bait spread on trees, we will be collecting moths that are active during January, February, and March.
  

Winter Stoneflies

• Nymphs are usually found later in the year in relatively clean streams, particularly those in mountainous regions.
  
• This effort shall be collecting only adult forms of stoneflies.