Biodiversity Discovery

A Foundation for Resource Protection and Stewardship

Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/BRMD/NRR—2010/278

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Natural Resource Program Center
ON THE COVER

Searching for marine life collected in the waters off 

Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park at the 2010 Biscayne 

BioBlitz, offered in partnership with National Geographic

NPS/Thomas Strom
Biodiversity Discovery

A Foundation for Resource Protection and Stewardship

Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/BRMD/NRR—2010/278

Biological Resource Management Division

National Park Service

1201 Oakridge Drive, Suite 200

Fort Collins, CO 80525

December 2010

U.S. Department of the Interior

National Park Service

Natural Resource Program Center

Fort Collins, Colorado
The National Park Service, Natural Resource Program Center publishes a range of reports that address natural 

resource topics of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and others in natural 

resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. 

The Natural Resource Report Series is used to disseminate high-priority, current natural resource management information with managerial application. The series targets a general, diverse audience, and may contain NPS policy considerations or address sensitive issues of management applicability.

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products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government.

This report is available on the Biological Resource Management Program’s Web site (http://www.nature.nps.gov/

biology/). 

Please cite this publication as:

National Park Service. 2010. Biodiversity discovery: a foundation for resource protection and stewardship. Natural 

Resource Report NPS/NRPC/BRMD/NRR—2010/278. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.

NPS 999/106255, December 2010
Executive Summary v

Biodiversity Discovery

in the National Park Service 1

National Parks and the Roots 

of Biodiversity Discovery 3

Benefits of Biodiversity Discovery 

Across the Spectrum 7

Scientific Value 7

Social Value and Park Relevance 9

Educational Value 12

Parks Working Together 15

An Umbrella of National Support 16

Key Components of a National Biodiversity 

Discovery Program 16

Literature Cited 21

Appendices

A Timeline of Key Activities 23

B Glossary of Terms 24

C Biodiversity Discovery Events 25

Contents

The National Park Service is charged with 

protecting the diversity of living organisms 

(i.e., biodiversity) found within its lands. 

Yet, as the National Park Service nears the 

beginning of its second century, estimates 

indicate that as many as 80–90 percent of 

the species in parks are undiscovered. This 

gap in knowledge makes it impossible to 

protect living resources from emerging 

threats—such as climate change, invasive 

plants and animals, disease, and human 

population pressures—or to keep ecosystems intact. To help address this gap, the 

National Park Service is undertaking a new 

effort, Biodiversity Discovery, to both document the diversity of life in parks and 

ensure the future of park scientific study by 

engaging the next generation of scientists, 

educators, and park supporters.

The first Biodiversity Discovery effort began 

as the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in the 

Great Smoky Mountains in 1998. Since 

then, many parks—large and small, naturally 

or culturally oriented—have begun their 

own Biodiversity Discovery activities; as of 

2010, more than 40 national park units had 

planned or conducted them. While biodiversity inventory is well-known across the 

National Park System, Biodiversity 

Discovery captures both the scientific and 

stewardship goals of conservation. Parks 

often use different names for their 

Biodiversity Discovery activities, but they 

share several common goals: (1) to gain 

knowledge about little-known groups such 

as insects, fungi, bacteria, and microscopic 

life—organisms that are key to ecosystem 

integrity and also to responsible park management; (2) to engage the public, young 

and old, and create a cadre of park supporters who believe science is relevant; and (3) 

to present biodiversity information to park 

managers in an organized way that reveals 

biological patterns at a broader regional, or 

even national, scale. 

The benefits of Biodiversity Discovery are 

multiplicative across different areas: 

● Benefits to park management include the 

ability to make sound, long-term decisions 

with increased species knowledge and 

support from partnerships built through 

Biodiversity Discovery. Also, Biodiversity 

Discovery will support existing National 

Park Service Inventory and Monitoring 

Networks, Research Learning Centers, and 

Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units.

● Benefits to science include the discovery of 

species—sometimes thousands—that are 

new to the park or even to science. Some 

such species may reveal key shifts in park 

ecosystems as climate change, invasive species, and other threats occur.

● Benefits to education include being able 

to provide hands-on, experiential learning 

environments that improve scientific literacy by making classroom lessons come alive, 

and that inspire environmental awareness 

that students may not gain anywhere else.

● Benefits to society include increased 

awareness of the local ecosystem in which 

participants live and a re-engaged sense of 

relevancy to science and stewardship. 

With the diverse benefits of Biodiversity 

Discovery activities, more parks across the 

country are incorporating them as key parts 

of their resource management, science, and 

education programs. However, parks do not 

currently have national coordination, 

funding, or support for these efforts, which 

often puts small or culturally based parks at 

a disadvantage. Faced with these challenges, 

parks are proposing a nationally coordinated effort tohelp initiate and continue 

Biodiversity Discovery. Areas of coordination would include sharing data and taxonomic expertise, developing a clearinghouse of information for planning events, 

and using the information obtained to 

inform sound management decisions. This 

national umbrella of support would encourage cooperation while keeping intact the 

grassroots initiative that has proven so successful. 

Executive Summary

 National Park Service v
Fulfilling the conservation mission of the 

National Park Service in the face of new 

threats requires that the Service embrace 

new approaches to science. Biodiversity 

Discovery activities are already successful 

scientific tools at many parks and have 

emerged as vital efforts to ensure preservation of our living resources by combining 

sound science and public passion.

vi Biodiversity Discovery
Our parks are home to plants and animals 

that have disappeared in other parts of the 

world because of development, habitat fragmentation, and resource overuse. Our parks 

serve as key areas to conserve biodiversity as 

climate change, human development, and 

invasive species alter the landscape. 

Preserving species small and large—from 

lichen to polar bears—is a National Park 

Service (NPS) mandate. Preserving our biodiversity also ensures that future artists, students, and scientists will experience these 

lands as park founders did long ago. 

Biodiversity Discovery, the term for a variety 

of efforts to discover and document the 

living organisms in our parks, has emerged 

as the foundation upon which parks can 

build sound, long-term plans for management and preservation. While biodiversity 

inventory is a well-known idea, Biodiversity 

Discovery combines scientific and stewardship goals. Unlike past inventory studies, or 

inventory and monitoring efforts that track 

known species over time, Biodiversity 

Discovery focuses on little-known groups 

such as insects, fungi, bacteria, and microscopic life—organisms that we are beginning to understand as key to ecosystem 

integrity and resilience. Already, more than 

40 park units across the country have 

planned or conducted different types of 

Biodiversity Discovery activities. These 

include multi-decadal All Taxa Biodiversity 

Inventories (ATBIs) to document all species 

in a geographic area, BioBlitzes that search 

for species within a given timeframe (often a 

weekend), and more targeted activities such 

as afternoon Bioquests to collect rare 

plants. The variety of Biodiversity Discovery 

activities reflects the diversity of parks 

themselves—their ecosystems, resources, 

and science goals. 

Also diverse are the participants in 

Biodiversity Discovery. Many parks have 

Biodiversity Discovery in the National Park Service

The National Park Service began because explorers, artists, politicians, and 

everyday citizens recognized the value of America’s undeveloped wildlands. 

Today, we recognize not only the value of these lands but also the value of 

their biological diversity (“biodiversity”). 

Biodiversity Discovery events 

focus on little-known groups, 

such as Hemiptera (“true bugs”) 

at the 2008 BioBlitz at Acadia 

National Park. NPS/Karen Lanier.

 National Park Service 1
invited the public to help with the daunting 

task of discovering new species across often 

vast landscapes. Across the country, people 

are pulling on boots and heading out into 

the fields, forests, tidepools, and caves of 

national parks to discover biodiversity. 

Sometimes it is barely dawn when they 

unfurl mist-nets to catch songbirds; sometimes it is almost midnight when they gather 

shimmering moths by mercury vapor lamplight. The people involved range in age from 

toddler to retired. They may be “citizen scientists” new to the field, PhD experts with 

decades of specialization, or national park 

scientists responsible for protecting biodiversity in the parks. Sometimes, all of these 

people work shoulder to shoulder on a biodiversity team, whispering excitedly because 

they have spotted a living thing that they 

have never seen before. 

As different as the Biodiversity Discovery 

activities are, and as varied as their participants may be, all of these emerging efforts 

have a common goal: to discover and document the species the National Park Service 

is mandated to protect, and to do so by 

engaging the public directly in this discovery. It is likely that 80–90 percent of the 

species in parks are undiscovered, yet the 

NPS is charged with protecting all of them. 

The collective efforts of Biodiversity 

Discovery in parks of all sizes and types—

including urban parks, large undeveloped 

parks, and those with a cultural focus—help 

us understand and protect our country’s 

incredibly varied natural heritage. By engaging the public in these efforts, people 

become immersed in the natural wonder of 

their parks and create lasting connections to 

our parks’ special places and resources.

Citizen scientists, such as these 

participants learning about 

spiders from a wildlife biologist 

at Acadia National Park’s Spider 

Blitz, are an essential part of the 

Biodiversity Discovery effort. 

NPS/Todd M. Edgar.

2 Biodiversity Discovery
The National Park System encompasses 

approximately 83.6 million acres of land. 

From the largest—Wrangell-St. Elias 

National Park and Preserve in Alaska, at 

13,200,000 acres—to one of the smallest—

Tupelo National Battlefield, at 1.0 acre—

each is home to amazing levels of biodiversity (National Park Service n.d.). 

No park unit represents a static ecosystem. 

Habitats constantly shift with fires, falling 

trees, severe weather, and other disturbances, and the species within them adapt. 

However, we now are experiencing ecosystem disturbances of a greater magnitude. 

Through the next century, the world’s ecosystems will likely face major changes due 

to:

● global climate change, which will shift 

habitats and result in new plant and animal 

community assemblages (Burns, Johnston, 

and Schmitz 2003), as well as intensify 

weather events;

● new development of cities, roads, and energy 

facilities that will change and fragment the 

landscape, including habitat linkages and 

wildlife movement corridors;

● growing human populations, which will 

directly and indirectly put pressures on 

protected areas, including increased use, 

loss of water, and air, noise, and light pollution, and other new resource management 

challenges; and

● continued introductions of non-native, invasive pests and diseases, which will change 

species composition of ecosystems and 

may wipe out certain species entirely. 

National parks are not immune to many of 

these changes, but they exist as habitat remnants where some of these pressures may be 

lessened. They often provide the only 

remaining habitat for plants and animals 

pushed out of their historic ranges, so they 

become genetic refuges and serve as important living laboratories for scientists and 

educators. 

We have already seen a dramatic example of 

ecosystem loss following Hurricanes 

Katrina and Rita in 2005. One NPS resource 

manager said that we learned from the 

experience of parks in Louisiana and 

Mississippi: they didn’t know what species 

they had, and after losing entire habitats in 

the storms, they may never know. Currently 

most NPS staff don’t know most of the 

species that live within their Park’s boundaries. That makes effective adaptive management very difficult. It also means that we 

will not know what is lost as ecosystems 

inevitably change. 

National Parks and the Roots of Biodiversity 

Discovery

National parks are facing 

challenges that require thorough 

knowledge of the species they 

contain. Climate change, for 

example, is shifting habitats 

through changes like shrinking 

glaciers. These images of Grinnell 

Glacier in Glacier National Park 

show a dramatic increase in 

the size of Upper Grinnell Lake 

lake as a result of melting ice. 

U.S. Geological Survey Northern 

Rocky Mountain Science Center/ 

Glacier National Park archives 

[left] and USGS/Karen Halzer 

[right].

 National Park Service 3
The roots of today’s Biodiversity Discovery 

can be traced back to the exploratory zeal of 

Lewis and Clark, who, in the early 1800s, 

made the “first systematic reports, based on 

scientific measurement...of the Missouri 

River—not only its course, but its flora and 

fauna.” From the Rocky Mountains and 

Pacific Northwest, they added “at least 120 

mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, as well as 

at least 182 plant species” to known lists 

(National Park Service 2007b). In the twentieth century, scientists realized the value of 

such species lists for long-term, proactive 

conservation. More recently, the focus has 

shifted to lesser-known species. A scientist 

at Yellowstone National Park noted that by 

the time we see changes in large, iconic 

animals, “there’s probably more going on 

behind the scenes....some change, or something wrong below the level of the large 

ungulates.” Knowledge of the smallest living 

things—insects, in this case—might be the 

key to future preservation of all species. It is 

in those knowledge gaps—the insects, bacteria, fungi, and other miniscule organisms—

that we have the greatest opportunities to 

learn. 

In the past, scientists have conducted partial 

inventories of some of these lesser-known 

groups of plants and animals in a few 

national parks. In Acadia National Park, for 

example, William Proctor made collections 

and notes from 1918 to 1945, and the park 

uses his species lists as a baseline with 

which to compare the life in the park today 

(Acadia Partners for Science and Learning 

2009). Studies this extensive are rare, 

however, and few of these inventory efforts 

had the goal of developing a comprehensive 

list of all living things within a park’s 

boundaries. 

 A major step forward in our knowledge of 

park life occurred with the establishment of 

the Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) 

Program and subsequent funding increases 

that came with the Natural Resource 

Challenge, beginning in Fiscal Year 2000. 

Through the establishment of regional networks, I&M activities have supported 

focused inventories of many species groups, 

including extensive efforts to document vascular plants and vertebrates in many of our 

parks. A systematic effort to identify and 

prioritize “vital signs” of ecosystem condition and to monitor selected vital signs in 

parks and across park networks to evaluate 

the health of biological and physical systems 

upon which living communities depend is 

another part of this program. Both the 

inventory and monitoring efforts that make 

up the I&M Program have been crucial to 

recognizing and beginning to understand 

our dynamic park ecosystems over time. 

The sheer number of park inventories and 

ecosystem vital signs far exceed the capacity 

of the I&M Program alone. Also, to ensure 

statistical rigor and long-term support for 

consistent and systematic field data collection, the I&M Program must focus its 

resources on a small but well documented 

set of vital signs and inventory priorities. 

Our national parks 

offer an ideal environment in which to 

discover biodiversity 

at this critical time in 

history.

Fungi found during Point Reyes 

National Seashore Mycoblitz, 

2007. Photo courtesy of the Bay 

Area Mycological Society.

Cooperators sampling macroinvertebrates at Fredericksburg and 

Spotsylvania National Military 

Park as part of the I&M effort. 

NPS/James Comiskey.

4 Biodiversity Discovery
Consequently, most I&M networks are 

unable to embark on continued Biodiversity 

Discovery efforts without jeopardizing 

other important priorities. However, it is 

clear that parks still need more biodiversity 

inventories and better data on species distributions, particularly for lesser known 

groups such as invertebrates, fungi, and 

non-vascular plants. This is especially true 

as natural areas face more pressure from 

climate change, invasive species, and habitat 

fragmentation. Biodiversity Discovery 

events offer unique and valuable opportunities to complement the success of I&M 

efforts and help fill unmet—yet critical—

inventory needs. Indeed, parks stand to 

learn enormous amounts about their 

natural resources, ecosystem functions, and 

vital sign trends by combining long-term 

monitoring, targeted inventories, and 

Biodiversity Discovery events. 

Biodiversity Discovery emerged as a tool to 

complement the efforts of the I&M 

Program by filling critical gaps that could 

not be accomplished due to limited time, 

funding, and resources. It also emerged as a 

new way to involve non-park groups in discovering life. The first such Biodiversity 

Discovery program began at Great Smoky 

Mountains National Park in 1998, with 

coordinated efforts by the park and its nonprofit partner Discover Life in America 

(DLIA). Based on biologist Dan Janzen’s 

efforts to inventory and document locations 

for all living things in Costa Rica , the effort 

was called the All Taxa Biodiversity 

Inventory (ATBI), and it was (and still is) an 

effort to relentlessly search for new species 

in unexplored areas and at unexplored 

scales. More than ten years later, ATBI 

activities at the Smokies have resulted in the 

discovery of over 900 species new to 

science and over 6,500 species new to the 

park. The Smokies’ efforts have ranged from 

more than 20 BioBlitzes and dozens of Fern 

Forays—events for the general public run by 

taxonomic experts—to backcountry expeditionary groups of one or two top scientists 

in their field. The Smokies ATBI has, in 

turn, motivated other parks to take on their 

own Biodiversity Discovery activities—

sometimes full ATBI efforts to discover all 

species within a park’s boundaries, and 

sometimes shorter or smaller events as time 

and funding permit. 

The Smokies ATBI efforts not only have 

resulted in a list of new species, but also 

have documented many more locations of 

all species, leading to a geo-referenced 

understanding of biodiversity distribution 

throughout the park. This has helped managers understand the distributions of such 

common species as mosquitoes and copperhead snakes, both of which had never been 

comprehensively searched for, although 

both have implications for human health. 

What the ATBI at Great Smoky Mountains 

did for management at one park has been 

notable, providing scientists with a greater 

knowledge of connections between living 

organisms and guiding further in-depth 

research with partner universities. What the 

ATBI and Biodiversity Discovery initiatives 

as a whole are doing for the National Park 

Service is exceptional: many parks have 

adopted the idea that discovering biodiversity not only adds names to a species list and 

Scans of actual specimens from 

a Great Smoky Mountains 

Biodiversity Discovery event. 

Courtesy of Discover Life in 

America.

 National Park Service 5
Table 1. Biodiversity Discovery Activities in the National Park Service

Park ATBIs Park BioBlitzes

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area began an ATBI program in 2004 with help from E.O. Wilson, a preeminent biologist, 

and invertebrate experts from the Harvard Museum of Comparative 

Zoology. Wilson coined the term “micro-wilderness” to describe the 

diversity of life on small, isolated islands, and since then, hundreds 

of students have ventured onto the islands during BioBlitzes to collect invertebrates. Students who took part during one soaking, chilly 

weekend wrote that they loved the experience: “It was cool,” one 

girl wrote, to do “an inventory on Thompson Island. Not very many 

people do that, and it was really cool to look for bugs in a place 

that’s not the same as where you live.” Scientists scan high resolution images of every species found, which means that more than 

1,300 intriguing images are available in an online database. When 

the Harvard partnership ends in 2010, individual researchers will 

continue to search for, and add to, knowledge of botanical and animal biodiversity as part of the park’s ATBI.

Acadia National Park has hosted nine BioBlitzes since 2003, with 

a specific taxonomic focus each year: ants, beetles, butterflies, 

and more. As a result of these efforts, they have identified 1,077 

species in the park. Because Acadia has a rich legacy of insect, 

spider, and other invertebrate collection by William Proctor, 

their goals to collect information for management are well-met 

through regular BioBlitzes rather than an ATBI. Park managers 

are proud of the level of public involvement in the BioBlitzes: 

“They’re not all professionals, the people who come; there are a 

lot of amateur entomologists,” said the park’s chief of resource 

management. Over the years, those amateurs have formed a 

dedicated group of knowledgeable biodiversity supporters. According to the park, 80–90 percent of participants return year 

after year. 

Big Thicket National Preserve held their ATBI kick-off event in 2006. 

Big Thicket has a very supportive, permanent, non-profit partner 

(Big Thicket Association) dedicated to their park. They understand 

their ATBI efforts are the beginning of a continuous, multi-year (or 

even decade) collaboration between: the public, Taxonomic Working 

Groups (TWiGs) of experts in their field, park staff, academic institutions, and independent researchers. The topics that these varied 

biodiversity seekers cover are also broad, encompassing 12 groups, 

so far, from amphibians to orchids to fungi. 

The Potomac Gorge, which includes the C&O Canal and George 

Washington Memorial Parkway, conducted a 30-hour BioBlitz 

with The Nature Conservancy in 2006. They had lofty goals: to 

survey algae, slime molds, fungi, bryophytes (such as orchids), 

select flowering plants, spiders, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. And they did it! One hundred and twenty-four volunteer 

scientists, naturalists, and students joined 17 taxonomic experts 

on teams. By the end of the BioBlitz, they had discovered at least 

1,278 species for the area.

In the West, 16 protected areas formed a collaborative group called 

the Colorado Plateau ATBI. Coordinated by Dr. Neil Cobb, director of 

the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research in Arizona, 

the Colorado Plateau parks are well organized via a centralized 

website that lists each Park’s resources for ATBI efforts and provides 

summaries of past events. While not all of the parks are always conducting ATBI activities due to lack of funding, staff, or cooperating 

researchers, their interest and organization promise future success. 

Dr. Cobb also has become the lead researcher for George Washington Birthplace National Monument, a small cultural park 2,000 miles 

away. Resource managers recognized the necessity of inventorying 

species on this small parcel of land, as well as the potential to complete a full list of species occurring on this “island” of preserved 

space. To accomplish their goals, George Washington holds BioBlitzes in which members of the general public help to collect invertebrates, which entomologists at Northern Arizona University identify. 

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the National Geographic Society conducted the largest single BioBlitz 

yet in 2008, involving more than 6,000 volunteers, scientists, 

students, and NPS staff (National Geographic 2009). The BioBlitz 

resulted in huge numbers of specimens identified, and it got 

people excited, a key first step to any large endeavor. To follow 

up on the energy from the BioBlitz, the park is hosting inventory sessions, some of which have a place for citizen scientists or 

volunteers, and some that only involve a small group of subject 

matter experts. Santa Monica Mountains is a park that challenges 

the typical divisions between ATBI and BioBlitz activities. It views 

different events to discover species as part of a cohesive effort to 

add to the park’s knowledge about species, no matter what each 

event is called. BioBlitzes in partnership with National Geographic 

also took place at Rock Creek Park, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and Biscayne National Park.

points to a map, but also is crucial to fulfilling the NPS mission. 

Parks that have taken on Biodiversity 

Discovery activities range from the largest, 

best-known parks, such as Yellowstone and 

Yosemite, to the smallest, cultural or urban 

parks, such as George Washington Birthplace. This is important because every 

National Park System unit, no matter its size 

or whether it was preserved for unique 

landforms or cultural value—represents a 

different collection of fauna and flora and 

represents different degrees of human alteration of the habitat. As a manager at George 

Washington Birthplace said, we need to 

ensure that the National Park Service views 

cultural parks as important reserves for biodiversity. Parks of all sizes have natural 

resources they are mandated to manage, yet 

they can’t effectively and responsibly 

manage what they don’t know they have. As 

a whole, these programs comprise a 

national Biodiversity Discovery effort that is 

unprecedented in scientific scope and 

public engagement. Table 1 showcases a few 

of these efforts.

6 Biodiversity Discovery
As more parks undertake Biodiversity 

Discovery activities and present their results 

at national meetings, they realize a multiplicative value from their efforts. Biodiversity 

Discovery activities not only provide valuable information about what exists in parks, 

but also have multiple values aside from 

science, although many benefits of 

Biodiversity Discovery are interconnected. 

Scientific Value

In the future, Biodiversity Discovery activities can play an increasingly important role 

in informed scientific management of park 

ecosystems. Biodiversity Discovery can: 

● Confirm the presence of plants and animals and discover new species, particularly 

the lesser-known taxa such as non-vascular 

plant, invertebrate, and microscopic 

groups. The true biodiversity of national 

parks remains relatively unknown and 

exists in the tens of thousands of undocumented invertebrate and non-vascular 

plant species. Biodiversity Discovery is a 

unique, effective, and often entertaining 

way to document these species and discover potential future indicators of large-scale 

change. Most importantly, each species 

discovered, confirmed, and mapped can 

help park managers make decisions to further study and protect living resources. As 

such, Biodiversity Discovery is an increasingly valuable management tool. 

● Reveal park biodiversity at new scales and 

unexplored habitats to park managers and 

decision makers. We may not know as 

much about our best-known parks as we 

think. At Yellowstone, Biodiversity Discovery participants discovered a species of 

grass new to the park. Looking below the 

megafauna level reorients managers to a 

broader perspective of biodiversity, which 

can lead to more comprehensive resource 

management and protection. 

● Serve as an invaluable scientific baseline. 

We can see an example of this happening 

already at Olympic National Park, where 

Biodiversity Discovery efforts just began. A 

short-term ATBI in 2008 enlisted scientists 

to inventory the insects, spiders, and nonvascular plants—such as mosses and lichens—of the Elwha River ecosystem. The 

park faces imminent ecological change because the Elwha Dam, which has blocked 

the river’s passage for 100 years, will be 

removed in 2012. Continued ATBI efforts 

will serve as a “before and after” study on 

the effects of drastic habitat change on species assemblages and adaptations. 

● Reveal emerging problems in living resources and improve predictive power. In 

Yellowstone, biologists have long watched 

grizzly bears foraging on steep scree slopes 

for a vital protein source: the cutworm 

moth. Yet this moth, a migratory animal, 

is considered an agricultural pest in the 

Great Plains. Fewer of the moths are 

making it back to Yellowstone, and bears 

are not finding enough moths to support 

themselves. This is the type of information 

that Biodiversity Discovery can provide, 

revealing the small drivers of the larger 

ecosystem. In Yellowstone, the cutworm 

moth matters to bears and ultimately to us, 

because when the grizzly fails to find food 

in the mountains, it may head downslope 

many miles to forage in the trash in towns 

(Yellowstone Park Foundation n.d.). There 

are many such links and patterns that we 

are more likely to discover if we have organized and focused efforts such as Biodiversity Discovery. 

● Answer questions on a national scale. A 

project to model the distribution of bee 

species in 75+ parks across the United 

States has been developed to examine the 

possible effects of climate variation on ecosystem services. Bees provide a critical ecosystem service, pollination, yet we know 

next to nothing about bees’ abundances 

and distributions across NPS lands. We 

know even less about the possible effects of 

climate change on bee populations and the 

subsequent ramifications for native plant 

communities. Ultimately, this project will 

Biodiversity Discovery can 

reveal the small drivers of larger 

ecosystems, such as the army 

cutworm moth that Yellowstone 

grizzlies depend upon. Whitney 

Cranshaw, Colorado State 

University, Bugwood.org.

Benefits of Biodiversity Discovery Across the 

Spectrum

 National Park Service 7
Biodiversity Discoveries

New phylum added to park list: At the 2010 Biscayne 

BioBlitz, scientists discovered a phylum—tardigrades—not 

previously found in the park. Commonly known as water 

bears, these minute aquatic invertebrates reach only about 

1 mm in length. Able to withstand a variety of conditions, 

tardigrades live in marine, freshwater, and semiaquatic terrestrial environments.

Rare species in common places: At Yosemite National

Park, scientists are just beginning to explore a vast system of 

caves under their more well-known towering walls of granite. While they expected discoveries in less disturbed caves, 

a new species of pseudoscorpion (Parobisium yosemite) was 

found in a cave that thousands of people visit every year. 

Most common but least studied: As part of Big Thicket 

National Preserve’s “Thicket of Discovery” ATBI, two new 

species of trematodes were discovered, Lissorchis amniculensis and Caecincola autumnae, which are both fish parasites. 

Parasitism is probably the least understood way of life on 

the planet, but ironically it is also the most common, represented in about 70% of the world’s taxa. Parasitic worms 

can teach us about host animal diversity, abundance, and 

food web interactions.

Some discoveries take time: After years of biodiversity 

activities at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a new 

pattern of life emerged there. Unlike the park’s plants, diversity of some of the most numerous and species-rich groups 

of life (insects and spiders) appears to level off or increase 

above mid-elevations. This means a much greater percentage of the park’s natural biodiversity may be at risk to being 

displaced upwards and “squeezed off” mountain peaks by 

temperature increases than park staff originally surmised. 

Park surveys contribute to national efforts: Congaree 

National Park has hosted annual Butterfly Counts over the 

last 14 years. More than 170 citizen scientists have documented almost 3,800 specimens, representing 138 Lepidoptera species. Data are entered and reported though the 

North American Butterfly Association national database. 

Consistent data from across North America are necessary to 

reveal climate-related trends and patterns. 

Photo credits, top to bottom: Goldstein Lab, Jean Krejca, Michael Barger, Discover Life in America, 

NPS/Theresa Thom

8 Biodiversity Discovery
yield one of the largest uniformly collected 

sets of information about the possible 

effects of climate variation on any fauna. 

The simplicity of the sampling method will 

provide opportunities for citizens and staff 

to be involved in the science of climate 

change, increasing their awareness and 

understanding of the issue and highlighting 

the very substantial role protected areas 

can play as ecological laboratories in the 

study of climate change. Such coordinated 

studies leverage the geographic scope of 

the National Park System to answer ecological questions of national interest.

● Provide incentive for scientists, volunteers, 

and supporters to help in the search for 

biodiversity. Biodiversity Discovery activities that involve the public—volunteers, 

non-NPS scientists, or other NPS staff—

suit many parks’ needs for baseline data 

about the species that exist in their park. 

With most of these activities, many hands 

and minds come together to ponder, 

explore, and collect an incredible amount 

of information in a short time. During the 

Biscayne BioBlitz in 2010, more than 2,500 

people—including 200 scientists and 1,300 

registered school children—identified 

more than 800 species and added a new 

phylum (Tardigrades) to the park’s species 

list. The human-power in volunteer Biodiversity Discovery activities can be enough 

to accomplish surveys and collections in 

just a few days that would not be possible 

using existing funds or relying on park 

staff, or with researchers working alone 

over many years.

● Help park scientists present science 

information to management, the community, and politicians. Often, a Biodiversity 

Discovery event is the catalyst for reporting results to managers, the media, and 

the public. Without these specific events, 

it is sometimes difficult to call attention 

to scientific findings or research, because 

there are often several (and sometimes 

dozens) of ongoing research projects. 

Too often, visiting scientists may conduct 

fascinating research in a park but deliver 

the results only in a printed dissertation or 

tables to be filed. The excitement of their 

discovery—and the importance of their 

findings—may not ever reach park management, and most certainly will not reach 

the public. Biodiversity Discovery events 

create an occasion to look for life and to 

celebrate the findings with other participants. This forum for presenting science is 

especially important for the rarely studied, 

but often ecologically important, taxonomic groups that Biodiversity Discovery 

targets.

● Generate new research questions based on 

discoveries of species and their condition 

in parks cooperatively with their academic 

and non-profit partners. Biodiversity 

Discovery can clarify research questions, 

guiding interest and funds to species that 

can indicate change. In the Great Smoky 

Mountains, for example, an ATBI project to explore diversity of high-elevation 

springs and streams found not only high 

numbers of the diatom species Eunotia 

subarcuatoides but also many deformities 

in their cell structure. This led to further 

research to investigate ecological conditions of springs that were previously presumed to be pristine. 

In addition, events at national parks can 

spark interest in neighboring protected 

areas, such as state parks and forests, city 

parks, and nature preserves. This has 

happened at Great Smoky Mountains: 

Tennessee State Parks are engaged in their 

own Biodiversity Discovery activities, 

many based on the Smokies’ models. South 

Carolina State Parks are also conducting 

Biodiversity Discovery activities. These 

regional collaborations add to a landscapescale understanding of species diversity 

and distribution and can also prompt 

research questions across scales that have 

not been addressed before. 

Social Value and Park Relevance

Equally obvious, but less studied, are the 

benefits that Biodiversity Discovery has to 

society and to parks themselves. During 

Biodiversity Discovery events, individuals 

form lasting bonds with the park—the land 

itself and the people who manage it, creating enduring relationships that are more difInvolving people in 

discovery is one of the 

best ways to add supporters of the National 

Park Service...because 

it allows people to indulge their sense of 

wonder and, ultimately, 

fall in love with the 

land. When people care 

about their parks, they 

act to protect them. 

A student from Northern Arizona 

University gains field experience 

working with Wildlife Technician 

Hank Hayou during a small 

mammal inventory at a 2006 

BioBlitz in Canyon de Chelly 

National Monument. NPS/Elaine 

Leslie.

 National Park Service 9
ficult to quantify, but that are unquestionably powerful and deeply meaningful. The 

social benefits include what students and 

scientists share as they sit together on the 

forest floor and sift through leaf litter. Here 

students smell the rich tang of fall leaves 

and soil in the sun. They hear the scientists 

naming, in Latin, the millipedes and beetles 

they’ve just found, the hush of far-off wind, 

and an occasional exclamation of “Cool! 

Look at this!” These qualitative experiences 

are tied to sound science and also to 

forming an appreciation of place and a 

sense of personal relevance in a larger 

process of resource protection. 

Aldo Leopold worried in 1949 that “our 

educational and economic system is headed 

away from, rather than toward, an intense 

consciousness of land. It is inconceivable to 

me that an ethical relation to land can exist 

without love, respect, and admiration for 

land, and high regard for its value....something far broader than mere economic 

value” (1989). Richard Louv, in Last Child 

in the Woods (2006), noted that in many 

ways we have lost this relation. “Our society 

is teaching young people to avoid direct 

experience in nature,” he wrote, and as a 

result, they often do not form an “intimate, 

familial attachment to the land and water” 

as previous generations did. Biodiversity 

Discovery activities are one way to provide a 

direct experience in nature. In particular, 

they invite a whole new generation back to 

wildlands and, in line with the Department 

of the Interior’s Youth in Natural Resources 

Initiative, may inspire youth to pursue new 

outdoor careers. 

Bringing volunteers together to conduct 

biological surveys excites people about the 

living things around them and creates a 

ready team of experts allied for resource 

preservation. 

Biodiversity Discovery also has tangible and 

significant outreach benefits to the parks in 

which these events occur, including: 

● Raising awareness of park natural resources amongst the public and within the parks 

themselves, especially for often overlooked 

but important and fascinating species 

groups, such as insects, fungi, spiders, and 

microbes. Many parks, especially in urban 

areas, are surrounded by communities of 

people with little knowledge of or access to 

the amazing biodiversity that literally exists 

on their doorsteps. Biodiversity Discovery 

provides unprecedented hands-on opportunities to experience this biodiversity with 

expert scientists, building appreciation 

and constituencies for scientific studies in 

parks. 

Biodiversity Discovery is also an opportunity to excite national park staff without 

direct access to the field, or with cultural 

resource backgrounds, about the diversity 

Boston Harbor Islands National 

Recreation Area BioBlitz 

volunteers connect with park 

resources. 

10 Biodiversity Discovery
Biodiversity Discovery events, 

such as this 2009 BioBlitz at 

Acadia National Park, bring 

people of all ages together to 

explore science in parks. NPS/

David Manski.

of life outside their windows. In many 

parks, education and law enforcement 

rangers, maintenance staff, and administrative employees play active roles in planning 

and conducting Biodiversity Discovery 

activities. Sometimes they also take part in 

collections and interact with the public in 

a refreshingly positive, often re-energizing 

way. This allows them to see the variety of 

life they play a role in protecting and to feel 

integrated into the overall resource management, education, and protection goals 

that are vital to the NPS mission. 

● Building lasting relationships between 

national parks and professional scientists 

or organizations, who often come to lend 

their expertise or seek information to further their research. These groups find more 

than data during their experience, in most 

cases. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Thicket National Preserve, 

and other parks, TWiGs—the Taxonomic 

Working Groups—come together to pool 

their expertise in a subject. A Biodiversity 

Discovery event is an opportunity for them 

to observe techniques, discuss problems, 

and generate new ideas in their field. Parks 

benefit greatly from the bonds formed with 

researchers. Following the National Geographic BioBlitz in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area—an event 

that involved 6,000 people—organizers 

said they were ecstatic about the thousands 

of specimens that were identified, but 

equally valuable were the personal bonds 

and professional connections formed with 

researchers. As a BioBlitz organizer at Yellowstone said, the event was not limited by 

the resources or the time it takes to identify 

what people collect, but rather by the experts who could attend. Most parks—even 

those centered in urban areas with plentiful academic institutions—feel the crunch 

of limited taxonomists to help collect in the 

field and then identify the enormous number of new specimens (Nance 2009). In the 

future, personal bonds between parks and 

scientists, or between TWiG members, will 

generate more interest in participating and 

create even more successful Biodiversity 

Discovery events. 

● Garnering life-long support from amateur 

scientists and park enthusiasts, who may 

have unique reasons for coming to Biodiversity Discovery. Some come because they 

already have a personal connection to the 

park, to the species being studied, or to the 

process of searching for species (such as in 

birdwatching or netting) (Kyle and Eccles 

2009). At Acadia National Park, 80 to 90 

percent of BioBlitz participants return 

year after year. Most are amateur or retired 

scientists, so they are an audience that 

already thinks biodiversity is “cool” and 

worthy of discovery. Still, the experience of 

working intensely on a team and discovering new life has changed their perceptions 

about the government as a whole, and the 

National Park Service in particular. One 

Biodiversity Discovery event planner emphasized the importance of reaching out 

to the public—young or old, scientist or 

non—because these activities teach people 

about the National Park Service and what 

we do. 

The National Parks Second Century Commission (2009) recommended that the 

NPS “increase lifelong learning within its 

parks and beyond” and “enhance community conservation and local initiatives 

to preserve distinctive heritage resources.” 

Biodiversity Discovery is a key way to accomplish those goals.

● Welcoming inexperienced volunteers into 

their national parks and an ecosystem that 

is probably similar to their local home. 

These non-scientists may not know what 

to expect from Biodiversity Discovery 

events, but they believe in the importance 

of volunteering on public lands and 

teaching their children about science and 

the outdoors (Kyle and Eccles 2009). 

This may have been the attraction for 

many at a recent event in New York City 

(National Park Service 2007a). At Gateway 

National Recreation Area, which perches 

on the edge of Queens, resource managers 

made a concerted effort to invite people 

who had never seen, let alone waded 

in, the park’s brackish bay, wetlands, or 

national wildlife refuge. In 2007, they 

“We’ve garnered a 

whole cadre of supporters of the National 

Park System. This is an 

indirect benefit—these 

people have an intimate 

experience with Acadia. They understand 

the park’s purpose and 

why they’re here—I 

could email them and 

garner public support 

on any issue to support 

the park’s mission.”

—Acadia National 

Park manager

 National Park Service 11
advertised their first BioBlitz to document 

animals and plants of all sorts. On the 

day of the BioBlitz, 12 scientists led 50 

volunteers into the salt marshes and fields 

to search for life. The event resulted in the 

discovery of many living things and also 

excited children and parents, amateur 

scientists, students, and participants 

who never realized such rich biodiversity 

existed within sight of the Manhattan 

skyline. Organizers said that they drew 

interest from people who wouldn’t have 

otherwise known what a BioBlitz was. 

Now people are aware, and there’s a lot 

more interest in new events and personally 

being involved in Gateway life.

We know more about why people take part 

in Biodiversity Discovery because in addition to evaluating the science that comes 

from these activities, social scientists at 

several universities have studied participants’ experiences. They find that 

Biodiversity Discovery can awaken a sense 

of wonder in park visitors and scientists 

alike. As Peter White, a representative of the 

Smokies’ non-profit partner, Discover Life 

in America, testified to the United States 

Senate in 2008, 

We are scientists and this is a sciencebased project, but the project is also a 

deliberate weaving together of educators 

and conservation managers and students of all ages...Our project has even 

inspired artists to join: photographers, 

painters, writers and even musicians 

have created works of art that illustrate 

and celebrate the diversity of life in the 

Smokies!

When people take part in science-based 

Biodiversity Discovery, they often carry 

their sense of wonder with them and 

express it well beyond the park’s boundaries, becoming fervent advocates for exploration and preservation.

Educational Value

Because Biodiversity Discovery events often 

require excited minds and willing hands but 

not a degree in science, they appeal to children and non-scientists as much as they do 

to PhDs. And because they allow a person 

to jump right into the exciting part of science—the wiggling or slimy or beautifully 

blooming part—Biodiversity Discovery 

events may be the ideal way to excite kids 

and other members of the public who are 

not familiar with hands-on science. 

There are several reasons it is important to 

excite children and the general public about 

science. 

● In the United States, our youth are falling 

behind in science and math compared to 

their global counterparts. 

● In our cities and suburbs, many children 

grow up without having the opportunity 

to ramble in the woods or observe wildlife, 

leaving them without the direct experience of a larger world of which they are a 

part. Many experts worry that they will not 

develop an environmental ethic that can 

make the study of science and stewardship 

of natural resources more relevant. 

● Many of our children have grown up 

viewing science as increasingly focused on 

fields such as microbiology and biochemistry. For many not intrinsically excited 

by the inner workings of DNA or cellular 

activity, this trend can make science less 

approachable and more intimidating. As a 

result, fewer children may grow up to become scientists, particularly taxonomists, 

entomologists, or other specialists who 

work with whole organisms. As we are realizing the critical need to know what lives in 

our parks, we are left with fewer experts to 

help us do so. 

● Current complex global changes require 

a high level of scientific literacy that the 

mainstream media, which communicates in 

soundbites, does not always present. 

The good news is that Biodiversity 

Discovery activities are proving a successful 

way to excite children—as well as their 

parents, teachers, and the scientists working 

with them. Many parks incorporate programs geared specifically toward interpretation and education into BioBlitz events, or 

Biodiversity Discovery activities 

excite children of all ages 

about science through handson learning. Top: scientist 

with students at Santa Monica 

Mountains National Recreation 

Area BioBlitz in 2008 (National 

Geographic photo); bottom: child 

with seastar (NPS/Ray Radigan).

12 Biodiversity Discovery
into school programs following an ATBI, 

but many benefits come simply from the 

discovery activity itself. The benefits to children, as well as participants from the 

general public of all ages, include:

● Keeping national parks relevant to a new 

generation through experiential learning

● Sparking an intrinsic “environmental 

intelligence” and allowing non-scientists 

to situate themselves as part of a larger 

ecosystem that extends beyond park 

boundaries

● Being introduced to lesser-known plants 

and animals in areas that many local participants have visited for years, thus providing 

a new lens through which to look at their 

neighborhood ecosystem

● Improving quantitative literacy, including: 

reinforcing the scientific method introduced in classroom science; practicing 

simple collection techniques, field identification, and using scientific tools such 

as GPS, maps, identification keys, and 

measurement tools; and correctly using 

scientific terms for equipment, sampling 

methods, and living organisms

● Working with expert scientists in the field 

and being involved in real science, thus 

building confidence in individuals’ abilities 

to form testable hypotheses and methods 

of field inquiry

Feedback from participants reveals that 

Biodiversity Discovery makes a lasting 

impression. BioBlitz participants at 

Congaree National Park said, “We can learn 

about these things without... [difficult] 

techniques—we can go out in the mountains and just see these things!” In addition 

to helping people to view the world through 

a (non-scary) scientific lens, these activities 

give people a chance to simply “be” in the 

park. “It’s nice to just sit [somewhere in the 

park] and experience really being hot and 

uncomfortable, really being cold, really 

being annoyed by insects,” one participant 

wrote and continued, “I feel more connected to nature [while in the park] which is 

something I lack a lot” in the city (Kyle and 

Eccles 2009). Experiencing unpackaged, 

sometimes uncomfortable nature is an 

experiential value that is hard to replicate, 

and one that unexpectedly brings people 

back for more. 

Following the field Biodiversity Discovery 

events they host, many parks produce supInterview with Dara Reyes, 

selected as the 2011 NPS Youth 

BioBlitz Ambassador, onstage 

at the 2010 BioBlitz at Biscayne 

National Park. Dara will connect 

youth from oceans to desert via 

podcasts and learning sessions 

at the 2011 BioBlitz at Saguaro 

National Park. NPS/Thomas 

Strom.

 National Park Service 13
plemental science education materials, 

including websites or brochures about the 

plants, animals, and other living things discovered to connect children and the general 

public to parks. Others have made their 

own field guides to allow park visitors to 

“discover” newly found species. Still others, 

such as Boston Harbor Islands, have made 

games and 3-D images of insects that rival 

the aliens in many kids’ video games. 

Even people who have never visited these 

parks can benefit from the educational tools 

produced. At Boston Harbor Islands, every 

species that goes into the database also has 

high-resolution images that go with it. A 

“Bug of the Month” online page presents 

one common species that visitors to the 

park are likely to encounter. The database is 

useful to park managers, to university students who analyze data and have published 

articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 

and to K–12 students who, in the future, 

will be able to extract data from the database and manipulate it, map species locations, create charts and graphs, and pull out 

pictures. 

All of these efforts have intangible benefits: 

they excite people about science and delve 

far beyond the “sound bite” information 

usually available in popular media or politics. Involving non-scientists also teaches 

them to care about the process of science 

itself, and to see it as an essential tool to 

monitor the world of which they are a part. 

Along with social benefits, these educational 

rewards are one more step to renewing the 

land ethic, the loss of which Leopold 

lamented, and to ensuring dedicated land 

stewards for generations to come. 

“Immersion in the 

natural environment...

exposes the young directly and immediately 

to the very elements 

from which humans 

evolved: earth, water, 

air, and other living kin, 

large and small.” 

—Richard Louv 

14 Biodiversity Discovery
As we near the beginning of the second 

century of the National Park Service in 

2016, managers, scientists, and educators at 

national park units are increasingly thinking 

about how their individual efforts can fit 

into a larger picture of Biodiversity 

Discovery and preservation. This is in line 

with several recent national movements that 

recognize the importance of biodiversity 

and the very real threats to our natural 

resources globally. These movements—and 

the increased public interest they will 

bring—have the potential to galvanize 

Biodiversity Discovery as a vital scientific 

and educational tool: 

● The 2009 Copenhagen Summit on Climate 

Change brought new attention to this global, scientifically documented problem. The 

United States was implicated as the second 

largest contributor of greenhouse gases, after China, and also as one of many nations 

whose natural resources will change drastically as a result of temperature and precipitation regimes. Understanding our natural 

heritage will be crucial to responding to 

climate change impacts in the management 

of our parks.

● On September 14, 2009, Secretary of the 

Interior Ken Salazar proclaimed that in 

the face of climate change, the department 

must “provide state-of-the-art science to 

better understand the impacts of climate 

change and...develop science-based 

adaptive management strategies” (Salazar 

2009), for which Biodiversity Discovery 

could provide crucial baseline inventory 

information.

● A new Department of the Interior Youth 

Initiative was announced in 2009 to encourage a new generation of scientists and 

environmental stewards. For the National 

Park Service, this will include support for 

internships and the Student Temporary 

and Student Career Employment Programs 

(STEP and SCEP).

● The NPS Emeritus Program proposes inviting retired science experts back into the 

field for park and public benefit.

● The NPS American Great Outdoors program, which has evolved from the Centennial Challenge funding initiative, will provide grants to discovery and science efforts.

● The year 2010 was declared the United 

Nations “Year of Biodiversity,” providing 

an excellent international affirmation of 

Biodiversity Discovery in national parks 

(International Union for the Conservation 

of Nature 2009).

Parks Working Together: A Future for Biodiversity 

Discovery in the National Park System 

Retired NPS marine biologist 

and science advisor Gary Davis 

addresses the crowd during the 

opening ceremony of the 2010 

BioBlitz at Biscayne National 

Park. NPS/Thomas Strom.

 National Park Service 15
These movements and initiatives all point to 

the need for parks to discover biodiversity 

and increasingly find new and more efficient ways to share information about biodiversity with other National Park Service 

managers, scientists who can apply their 

findings to in-depth research, and students 

who bear the responsibility of protecting 

biodiversity in the future. 

An Umbrella of National Support

While budgets rise and fall annually, the 

resources protected within park borders—

and the National Park Service itself—will 

thrive for years to come if we practice 

responsible stewardship today. Investing in 

Biodiversity Discovery activities at multiple 

scales is invaluable to the future of our 

parks, to ensure we comprehend fully what 

we are responsible for protecting. 

Despite the fact that there is little federal 

funding earmarked for Biodiversity 

Discovery, and no top-down national organization, many parks are already communicating with one another and beginning 

ambitious (although sometimes short-term 

and only partially funded) Biodiversity 

Discovery programs. Parks face several 

challenges in conducting these activities, 

from lack of support or knowledge at many 

small parks, to planning events with limited 

budgets, to efficiently sharing data with 

managers and scientists. A well-planned 

national effort could address these challenges while supporting the energy and 

incentives that come from a grassroots initiative. 

Parks have begun to come together, often in 

collaboration with other organizations and 

agencies, to map out a strategy to support 

Biodiversity Discovery. An informal steering 

committee was created in 2008, and 

together this group has identified key 

actions to strengthen and build Biodiversity 

Discovery across the National Park System. 

These actions, when implemented nationally in a coordinated and collaborative 

fashion, will support both ongoing and new 

Biodiversity Discovery activities while 

embracing the important, park-specific 

grassroots approach that has been characteristic of the Biodiversity Discovery movement. 

Key Components of a National Biodiversity 

Discovery Program

● Provide data management and curatorial support for Biodiversity Discovery, 

including database coordination and 

specimen management. With help from 

the NPS I&M Program, many Biodiversity 

Discovery events ensure that species data 

collected are entered into databases that 

link to the national NPS species database, 

NPSpecies. Already, NPSpecies lets parks 

store, manage, and share scientific informaIncreasingly, it is vital 

to take individual Biodiversity Discovery efforts as part of a whole. 

We need to look at 

Biodiversity Discovery 

efforts not as discrete 

stabs in the dark, but 

as part of an established national effort to 

understand our living 

resources at a critical 

point in history.

A national Biodiversity Discovery 

program can help standardize 

data collection and management. 

NPS/Kevin F. Noon.

16 Biodiversity Discovery
tion about park biodiversity (Nance 2009). 

However, parks could improve the linked 

databases by creating Biodiversity Discovery data quality standards, coupled with 

a set of critical common data fields to be 

completed for each Biodiversity Discovery 

event. These common data fields, in turn, 

would be consistent with, and easily linked 

to, the national NPSpecies database. 

● Parks could then share information about 

species location and abundance, as well 

as their search effort and methods, with 

confidence that the information was 

reliable and comparable across a broad 

geographic area. These kinds of regional 

comparisons would demonstrate the broad 

reach of Biodiversity Discovery for understanding natural resource distributions on 

a national scale. Also, when the findings 

from multiple events were combined, they 

would help elucidate range shifts that may 

result from environmental changes such as 

climate change.

Biodiversity Discovery events often generate many specimen collections. Tools for 

sharing experiences and streamlining collections management would be extremely 

helpful. Repository agreement templates 

designed for specific types of Biodiversity 

Discovery activities could be an important 

first step and something that a national 

program could reasonably initiate. 

In both cases above—managing data 

records and the collections that result from 

Biodiversity Discovery events—a national 

program could serve as a support structure 

to share tools and techniques for parks that 

are planning events. One of the greatest 

challenges for any park when embarking on Biodiversity Discovery is ensuring 

proper and reliable data management. 

Consistent and easy-to-use protocols, 

tools, templates, and database structures 

would go a long way toward alleviating this 

up-front challenge.

● Offer access to taxonomic expertise, 

sampling protocols, and other technical 

support. One result of a reduced focus on 

taxonomy in academic programs is that 

there are fewer experts able to identify 

specialized groups of organisms. Mention 

millipede taxonomists amongst a group 

of NPS managers from parks across the 

country, and only one name comes up as 

the “go-to-guy” for expert identification. 

But this expert cannot volunteer all of his 

time to travel between Maine, Texas, and 

Alaska to identify millipedes for free. The 

result is that parks compete for his—and 

other experts’—attention, which does not 

benefit the National Park Service or scientific understanding overall. 

National organization would facilitate 

parks’ access to taxonomic expertise for 

Biodiversity Discovery events. As a result, 

individual parks could plan and conduct 

their activities more efficiently, and parks 

would be aware of the best taxonomic 

experts for their projects. Increased coordination also may allow parks to organize 

some nationwide Biodiversity Discovery 

events, which could attract taxonomists, 

volunteers, and funders interested in taking part in a large-scale project. Because 

people who participate in one event are 

often interested in other similar events, this 

kind of participation might set a ball rolling 

to enable more events at small and large 

scales across the country.

Finally, parks often face the challenge of 

adequately compensating taxonomists: 

Biodiversity Discovery events can generate hundreds or even thousands of specimens, the identification of which requires 

a microscope and many hours per organism. Through taxonomic fellowships or a 

proposed “Taxonomist-in-Parks” program 

(like the existing Geologist-in-Parks program), parks could enjoy the services of recently graduated taxonomists or students, 

and the young scientists, in turn, could gain 

invaluable experience for their specialized 

careers. 

● Provide a clearinghouse for sampling 

designs, logistical tools, and inter-program 

collaboration for parks conducting Biodiversity Discovery activities. As more parks 

embark on Biodiversity Discovery events, 

the opportunity for and importance of colIdentification of specimens 

requires the time and expertise 

of taxonomists, such as the 

scientists at the “Thicket of 

Discovery” ATBI at Big Thicket 

National Preserve.

 National Park Service 17
laboration are magnified. Parks learn new 

lessons each time, as well as new ways to 

improve programs or coordinate sampling 

efforts. Already, parks are collaborating 

with I&M networks, Research Learning 

Centers, Cooperative Ecosystem Studies 

Units, and the Encyclopedia of Life, as 

well as with other parks that have extensive experience conducting Biodiversity 

Discovery efforts across the country. By 

working together we can ultimately magnify the returns of any individual park’s 

sampling and outreach efforts. A national 

effort could catalyze further efforts to work 

together, sharing experiences and increasing the efficiency and value of Biodiversity 

Discovery events. A clearinghouse could 

similarly provide information on taxonspecific sampling protocols, research and 

collecting permit templates geared toward 

event types, and other logistical tools 

(Nance 2009).

To begin this effort, the NPS Biological Resources Management Division in Fort Collins, Colorado, in collaboration with the 

Biodiversity Discovery steering committee, 

is drafting a Biodiversity Discovery handbook and other planning resources that 

point to key steps in conducting events. As 

seen in the discoveries and descriptions 

above, there is no “typical” Biodiversity 

Discovery activity, largely because there 

is no typical park in the National Park 

System. What works for a huge desert park 

may not work well for an urban cultural 

park. Still, people planning Biodiversity 

Discovery activities can learn and adapt 

from others’ experiences. The handbook 

outlines some of these considerations for 

finding the right Biodiversity Discovery 

activity, including: 

● Park science and management goals 

● In-park resources and support, 

including staff numbers, funding, and 

encouragement

● Outside collaboration and support, 

including experts willing to help, 

organizations willing to fund projects, 

and information sharing between park 

units

● Previous activities in the park, or in 

cooperation with other parks

● Present a consistent purpose and sense 

of continuity between parks in conductPark ranger programs, such as 

this program at Santa Monica 

Mountains National Recreation 

Area, can be an important part 

of Biodiversity Discovery events. 

National Geographic photo.

18 Biodiversity Discovery
ing Biodiversity Discovery. For the public 

attending one of these events, the park represents the entire National Park Service. 

Each unit represents the ideals and mission 

of the whole, so each park unit—no matter 

its size, emphasis, or past history of discovering biodiversity—should be tapping into 

larger, ongoing ideas about the importance 

of these activities to science and society, 

as well as seeking more practical guidance 

on conducting such activities. Each park 

does not have to do the same activities—far 

from it. Rather, the attributes, resources, 

and special purpose of each park may 

indicate a need for different approaches or 

intensities of ATBI and/or BioBlitz efforts 

(National Park Service Biodiversity Steering Committee 2010). As the National Park 

Service assumes a national role in discovering biodiversity through a unique model, 

it needs to offer ideas about Biodiversity 

Discovery activities that will fit the needs 

and constraints of an individual park and 

help it fulfill shared goals of increased science knowledge and public engagement.

Linking to ongoing, umbrella Biodiversity 

Discovery knowledge and resources can 

also help managers and educators gain 

support at small or cultural parks that are 

not always seen as valuable biodiversity 

reserves. Well-organized efforts to discover biodiversity across the National Park 

Service would reveal patterns in species 

distribution across geographic areas, and 

provide the “state-of-the-art” science 

information that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar declared vital to address 

climate change challenges. Discovering 

biodiversity nationwide is important because national parks themselves represent 

the diversity of life in the United States as a 

whole.

The manager of a small cultural park 

reported that through national communication with other parks that have conducted 

Biodiversity Discovery activities, superintendents are able to see what is happening at 

other small parks and to learn that such 

events are possible—and beneficial—at their 

own parks. Increasingly, it is clear that a 

park’s acreage or founding purpose do not 

make the life within it any less intriguing, or 

mean that it is less critical in understanding 

global changes in biodiversity. It is necessary 

that all parks, regardless of their size, focus, 

or level of prestige, have opportunities to 

conduct Biodiversity Discovery activities, 

and that they benefit from the wealth of 

knowledge gained through a decade of 

Biodiversity Discovery efforts in parks across 

the country. 

Through the work of its Biodiversity 

Discovery steering committee, the National 

Park Service has started to build a national 

umbrella of resources to support 

Biodiversity Discovery, including sharing 

experts and data and having a pool of effective, sound, science-based Biodiversity 

Discovery activity examples. Although not 

all parks presently conduct Biodiversity 

Discovery activities, it is clear that these 

activities yield tremendous scientific, social, 

and educational benefits, as well as information invaluable to future management. 

As we attempt to understand biodiversity 

and its health during large-scale changes, 

we need a way for more interested parks to 

join the effort. National organization would 

provide multiplicative benefits for parks 

through collaboration. To preserve the 

wealth of biodiversity in our national parks 

in the face of daunting threats for the 

future, we need to dedicate time, resources, 

and commitment to making Biodiversity 

Discovery possible on a much larger scale. 

In the first century of the National Park 

Service, we made a national decision to 

protect unique landscapes from development. People come tot these lands for 

enjoyment and inspiration and, increasingly, 

for scientific investigation. As we move into 

the second century and beyond, we must 

look to the biodiversity on our lands as 

invaluable. It is the key to understanding 

and acting upon disturbances such as 

climate change, and is the ultimate inspiration for future stewards. Biodiversity 

Discovery emerges as the ideal tool to 

accomplish these goals and ensure that 

future management is born of both sound 

science and public passion.

It is necessary that all 

parks, regardless of 

their size, focus, or level of prestige, have opportunities to conduct 

Biodiversity Discovery 

activities, and that they 

benefit from the wealth 

of knowledge gained 

through a decade of 

Biodiversity Discovery in parks across the 

country. 

 National Park Service 19
Trapping moths at Santa Monica 

Mountains National Recreation 

Area’s 2008 BioBlitz. National 

Geographic Society photo.

20 Biodiversity Discovery
Acadia Partners for Science and Learning. 2009. Acadia Partners mission. Available at 

http://www.acadiapartners.org/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&cei

d=1 (accessed 16 September 2009).

Alroy, J. (n.d.) Scientific expeditions. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 

University of California: Santa Barbara. Available at http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/

lefa/expeditions.html (accessed 9 September 2009).

 Burns, C. E., K. M. Johnston, and O. J. Schmitz. 2003. Global climate change and mammalian 

species diversity in U.S. national parks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

of the United States of America 100(20):11474–11477. Available at http://www.pnas.org/

content/100/20/11474.full.pdf+html (accessed 22 March 2010).

Cohn, J. P. 2008. Citizen science: can volunteers do real research? BioScience 58(3):192–197.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature. 2009. 2010: International year of biodiversity. Available at http://www.countdown2010.net/year-biodiversity (accessed 18 

December 2009).

Irwin, A. 1995. Citizen science. Routledge, London, England.

Janzen, D. H. and W. Hallwachs. 1994. All taxa biodiversity inventory (ATBI) of terrestrial 

systems. a generic protocol for preparing wildland biodiversity for non-damaging use. 

Report of a NSF workshop, April 16–18, 1993. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Karns, D. R., D. G. Ruch, R. D. Brodman, M. T. Jackson, P. E. Rothrock, P. E. Scott, T. P. Simon, 

and J. O. Whitaker, Jr. 2006. Results of a short-term BioBlitz of the aquatic and terrestrial 

habitats of Otter Creek, Vigo County, Indiana. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 115(2):82–88.

Kyle, G. and K. Eccles. 2009. Creating stewardship through discovery: final report. Texas A&M 

University, College Station, Texas.

Leopold, A. 1989. A Sand County almanac: and sketches here and there. Oxford University 

Press, New York.

Louv, R. 2006. Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Lundmark, C. 2003. BioBlitz: getting into backyard biodiversity. Bioscience 53(4):329.

Meffe, G. K. and C. R. Carroll. 1997. Principles of conservation biology, second edition. 

Sinauer Associates, Inc, Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Nance, E. 2009. All taxa biodiversity inventory user needs assessment. National Park Service, 

Washington, D.C.

National Geographic. 2009. BioBlitz. Available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/

projects/bioblitz.html (accessed 15 September 2009).

National Parks Second Century Commission. 2009. Advancing the national park idea. National 

Parks Second Century Commission report. Available at http://www.npca.org/

commission/pdf/Commission_Report.PDF (accessed 12 March 2010).

Literature Cited

 National Park Service 21
National Park Service. 2007a. Jamaica Bay Bioblitz. National Park Service, Gateway National 

Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Institute, Staten Island, New York. 

———. Scientific encounters. 2007b. Lewis and Clark Expedition: a national register of historic places travel itinerary. Available at http://www.nps.gov/history/Nr/travel/

lewisandclark/encounters.htm and http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/LewisClark2/

TheJourney/ScienceofExpedition.htm (accessed 11 September 2009). 

———. (n.d.) The National Park System acreage. Available at http://www.nps.gov/legacy/

acreage.html (accessed 2 September 2009).

National Park Service Biodiversity Stewardship Steering Committee. 2010. From ATBI to 

BioBlitz: a national strategy for biodiversity stewardship in parks. Pages 144–151 in S. 

Weber, editor. Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World: Proceedings of the 2009 

GWS Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites. The George 

Wright Society, Hancock, Michigan.

National Science and Technology Council. 2008. Scientific collections: mission critical infrastructure for federal science agencies, a report of the Interagency Working Group on 

Scientific Collections (IWGSC). National Science and Technology Council, Washington, 

D.C. 

Salazar, K. 2009. Order No. 3289: Addressing the impacts of climate change on America’s 

water, land, and other natural and cultural resources. U.S. Department of the Interior, 

Washington, D.C. 

White, P. S. 2008. Discover Life in America, Inc., and the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A statement for the Subcommittee on National 

Parks of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Asheville, North 

Carolina, July 21, 2008. Available from http://www.bio.unc.edu/faculty/White/Reprints/

Peter_White_DLIA_Statement.pdf (accessed 29 March 2010).

Yellowstone Park Foundation. (n.d.) Grizzly bear – moth study. Wildlife conservation: past 

funded projects. Available at http://www.ypf.org/projects/wildlife/grizzlyMoth-past.asp 

(accessed 16 September 2009).

22 Biodiversity Discovery
Appendix A. Timeline of Key Biodiversity Activities 

in the National Park Service

Year Biodiversity Discovery Event

1997 First Discover Life in America (DLIA, Great Smoky Mountains’ non-profit partner) conference is 

held

1998 First ATBI formally begins at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with Discover Life in America

2000 DLIA signs General Agreement with the National Park Service

2001 Idea of ATBI expands to six parks

ATBI Alliance begins

2002 North Cascades National Park begins vascular plant forays with public volunteers and botanists

Tomales Bay Biodiversity Inventory begins BioQuests at Point Reyes National Seashore

2003 Acadia National Park holds its first invertebrate BioBlitz

NSF Planetary Biodiversity Inventory worldwide grant funds inventories for Eumycetozoans 

(slime molds) in three dozen NPS units over several years

2004 ATBI Alliance becomes subgroup of Discover Life in America 

North Cascades extends vascular plant forays to parks within network: forays begin at Ebey’s 

Landing National Historical Reserve (NPS, TNC, and WA state park owned) and Mount Rainier 

National Park

2005 Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area launches first BioBlitz with Harvard University, 

coordinated by E.O. Wilson

Canyon de Chelly National Monument begins arthropod inventory, involving teams of scientists, 

college students, and general public volunteers

2006 ATBI Alliance data workshop is held at Smokies with funding support from National Biological 

Information Infrastructure

DLIA develops subgroup to work on ATBI Alliance

Congaree National Park conducts first BioBlitz on spiders

National program of ATBIs across National Park Service is proposed as “Creating Environmental 

Stewardship” project

Potomac Gorge BioBlitz with The Nature Conservancy surveys life at two urban corridor parks

The Colorado Plateau ATBI begins collaborative five-year strategic plan with 16 of 36 regional 

parks and seven cooperating universities

2007 First annual BioBlitz in partnership with National Geographic Society is held at Rock Creek Park 

in Washington, DC

Big Thicket National Preserve and non-profit partner Thicket of Diversity hold first BioBlitz

Yellowstone National Park begins Aquatic Molecular ATBI

2008 Centennial Challenge (in 2009, name changed to “Treasured Landscapes”) funds ATBI efforts in 

nine parks 

May 30–31, second annual BioBlitz in partnership with National Geographic Society at Santa 

Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Los Angeles, California, documents more 

than 1,700 species with 6,000 participants

National meeting of parks interested in Biodiversity Discovery is hosted in Fort Collins, Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park begins Mycoblitz effort to inventory fungi in park

2009 Handbook is drafted for parks planning their Biodiversity Discovery activities

Third annual BioBlitz in partnership with National Geographic Society is held at Indiana Dunes 

National Lakeshore

Yellowstone National Park holds its first BioBlitz

All Taxa Biodiversity Discovery User Needs Assessment report is published, based on interviews 

with parks about collaborative databases

National Park Service participates in panel at 13th annual DLIA conference

2010 Fourth annual BioBlitz in partnership with National Geographic Society is held at Biscayne 

National Park

Santa Monica Mountains holds Science Day

Congaree National Park holds Moth Blitz 

 National Park Service 23
Appendix B. Glossary of Terms

National parks undertake many different Biodiversity Discovery efforts with the shared goal of 

pooling expert knowledge to organize collections and identification, bringing citizen scientists into the field, educating the public, and better understanding the diversity of life in our 

national parks. Here are some important terms used in discussions of Biodiversity Discovery:

ATBI - All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory is an intense inventory of all taxa (groups) to the species level within a geographic area, followed with further inventory as needed by specific 

taxa and in-depth basic and applied biodiversity research and development (Janzen and 

Hallwachs 1994). ATBIs are often long-term, park-wide efforts. 

BioBlitz - A short-term (usually 24- to 48-hour), highly publicized field collection and 

identification event, often involving the public and experts in the field. BioBlitzes often 

have either a taxonomic focus (collecting beetles, or butterflies, or fungi, for example) or an 

ecosystem focus, such as a search for all the types of plants and animals in a park’s wetlands 

(based on Karns et al. 2006; Lundmark 2003). Some parks conduct BioBlitzes to supplement ATBI collections, while others conduct BioBlitzes but do not claim to be undertaking 

a larger ATBI. 

Biodiversity - The variety of living organisms considered at all levels of organization, 

including the genetic, species, and higher taxonomic levels, and the variety of habitats and 

ecosystems, as well as the processes occurring therein (Meffe and Carroll 1997).

Citizen science - Citizen science refers to participation of the general public as field assistants in scientific studies (Cohn 2008; Irwin 1995). Volunteers (citizen scientists) may have 

little to no specific scientific training, or they may be retired professional scientists. They 

typically perform or manage tasks such as observation, measurement, or computation.

NPSpecies - A national database into which parks can enter species records, and which is 

accessible by the public and other parks.

24 Biodiversity Discovery
Appendix C. National Park Service Biodiversity 

Discovery Events (Planned and Conducted)

Code Park Effort name Dates Estimated 

participants

# species 

discovered

ACAD Acadia National Park BioBlitzes 2003–present 230 1,200+

ARCH Arches National Park Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

AZRU Aztec Ruins National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

BAND Bandelier National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

BISC Biscayne National Park BioBlitz 2010 2,500+ 800+

BITH Big Thicket National 

Preserve

ATBI, 

BioBlitzes

2006–present 2,384 800+

BOHA Boston Harbor Islands 

National Recreation 

Area

Invertebrate 

ATBI, 

BioBlitzes

2006–2010 

(ATBI), 

2005–ongoing 

(BioBlitzes)

234 1,350

BRCA Bryce Canyon National 

Park

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

CACH Canyon de Chelly 

National Monument

Arthropod 

Inventory, ATBI

2005–2007 20 5,000 

(specimens)

CANY Canyonlands National 

Park

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

CARE Capitol Reef National 

Park

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

CHIS Channel Islands 

National Park

ATBI future n/a n/a

CHOH Chesapeake and Ohio 

(C & O) Canal NHP

Potomac 

Gorge BioBlitz

2006 141 1,278

CONG Congaree National 

Park

BioBlitzes & 

Inventories

2006–present 175+ 700–800

DEVA Death Valley National 

Park

Invertebrate 

BioBlitzes

2007–2008 n/a 200

EBLA Ebey's Landing 

National Historic 

Reserve

Vascular Plant 

Forays

2004 10 221

ELMA El Malpais National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

ELMO El Morro National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

FOBU Fossil Butte National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

GATE Gateway National 

Recreation Area

BioBlitz 2007, 2009, 

2010

210+ 1,100

GEWA George Washington 

Birthplace NM

BioBlitzes 2008–present 45 860

GLAC Glacier National Park Individual taxa 

inventories

ongoing 50 200

GLCA Glen Canyon NRA Surveys n/a n/a n/a

 National Park Service 25
Code Park Effort name Dates Estimated 

participants

# species 

discovered

n/a Grand Staircase 

Escalante National 

Monument

BioBlitz 2009 n/a n/a

GRBA Great Basin National 

Park

BioBlitzes 2009, 2010 66 47

GRCA Grand Canyon 

National Park

BioBlitzes, 

Inventories

1999–2004 

(BioBlitz), 

ongoing 

inventories

n/a n/a

GRSM Great Smoky 

Mountains National 

Park

ATBI (including 

BioBlitzes, etc)

1998–present 800+ 6,582

GWMP George Washington 

Memorial Parkway

Potomac 

Gorge BioBlitz

2006 see CHOH see CHOH

n/a Hovenweep National 

Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

INDU Indiana Dunes 

National Lakeshore

BioBlitz 2009 5,929 1,200

JOTR Joshua Tree National 

Park

BioBlitz, 

inventories

2010 (BioBlitz), 

ongoing 

inventories

300 1,646

MACA Mammoth Cave 

National Park

ATBI n/a n/a n/a

MEVE Mesa Verde Invertebrate 

Inventories

1999–2007 n/a 741 (and 

counting)

MORA Mount Rainier 

National Park

Plant forays 2004–2007 20 518

NABR Natural Bridge 

National Monument

Colorado 

Plateau ATBI

n/a n/a n/a

NOCA North Cascades 

National Park

Plant forays 2002–present 37 1,757

OLYM Olympic National Park ATBI 2008 n/a 813

PARA Grand CanyonParashant NMATBI n/a n/a n/a

PORE Point Reyes National 

Seashore

Forays, 

inventories, 

bioquests

2002–present 680 4316

ROCR Rock Creek Park BioBlitz 2007 200 661

ROMO Rocky Mountain 

National Park

BioBlitzes 2008–2009 523 240

SAMO Santa Monica 

Mountains NRA

BioBlitz 2008 6,000 281

SEKI Sequoia-Kings Canyon 

National Park

Inventory n/a n/a 30

YELL Yellowstone National 

Park

ATBI, BioBlitz 2007–2009 

(ATBI), 2009 

(BioBlitz)

125 1,079

YOSE Yosemite National 

Park

Inventories 2004–present n/a not tabulated

26 Biodiversity Discovery
The Department of the Interior protects and manages the nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other 

information about those resources; and honors its special responsibilities to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated Island 

Communities.

NPS 999/106255, December 2010
National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Natural Resource Program Center 

1201 Oakridge Drive, Suite 200 

Fort Collins, Colorado 80525

www.nature.nps.gov

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