Biodiversity Discovery a Foundation for Resource Protection and Stewardship
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Program Center Biodiversity Discovery A Foundation for Resource Protection and Stewardship Natural Resource Report NPS/NRPC/BRMD/NRR—2010/278 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 infor- mation with managerial application. The series targets a general, diverse audience, and may contain NPS policy consid- erations or address sensitive issues of management applicability. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and designed and published in a pro- fessional manner. This report received informal peer review by subject-matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial 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 Contents Executive Summary v Parks Working Together 15 An Umbrella of National Support 16 Key Components of a National Biodiversity Biodiversity Discovery Discovery Program 16 in the National Park Service 1 Literature Cited 21 National Parks and the Roots of Biodiversity Discovery 3 Appendices A Timeline of Key Activities 23 B Glossary of Terms 24 Benefits of Biodiversity Discovery C Biodiversity Discovery Events 25 Across the Spectrum 7 Scientific Value 7 Social Value and Park Relevance 9 Educational Value 12 Executive Summary The National Park Service is charged with ● Benefits to park management include the protecting the diversity of living organisms ability to make sound, long-term decisions (i.e., biodiversity) found within its lands. with increased species knowledge and Yet, as the National Park Service nears the support from partnerships built through beginning of its second century, estimates Biodiversity Discovery. Also, Biodiversity indicate that as many as 80–90 percent of Discovery will support existing National the species in parks are undiscovered. This Park Service Inventory and Monitoring gap in knowledge makes it impossible to Networks, Research Learning Centers, and protect living resources from emerging Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units. threats—such as climate change, invasive plants and animals, disease, and human ● Benefits to science include the discovery of population pressures—or to keep ecosys- species—sometimes thousands—that are tems intact. To help address this gap, the new to the park or even to science. Some National Park Service is undertaking a new such species may reveal key shifts in park effort, Biodiversity Discovery, to both doc- ecosystems as climate change, invasive spe- ument the diversity of life in parks and cies, and other threats occur. ensure the future of park scientific study by engaging the next generation of scientists, ● Benefits to education include being able educators, and park supporters. to provide hands-on, experiential learning environments that improve scientific litera- The first Biodiversity Discovery effort began cy by making classroom lessons come alive, as the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in the and that inspire environmental awareness Great Smoky Mountains in 1998. Since that students may not gain anywhere else. then, many parks—large and small, naturally or culturally oriented—have begun their ● Benefits to society include increased own Biodiversity Discovery activities; as of awareness of the local ecosystem in which 2010, more than 40 national park units had participants live and a re-engaged sense of planned or conducted them. While biodi- relevancy to science and stewardship. versity inventory is well-known across the National Park System, Biodiversity With the diverse benefits of Biodiversity Discovery captures both the scientific and Discovery activities, more parks across the stewardship goals of conservation. Parks country are incorporating them as key parts often use different names for their of their resource management, science, and Biodiversity Discovery activities, but they education programs. However, parks do not share several common goals: (1) to gain currently have national coordination, knowledge about little-known groups such funding, or support for these efforts, which as insects, fungi, bacteria, and microscopic often puts small or culturally based parks at life—organisms that are key to ecosystem a disadvantage. Faced with these challenges, integrity and also to responsible park man- parks are proposing a nationally coordi- agement; (2) to engage the public, young nated effort tohelp initiate and continue and old, and create a cadre of park support- Biodiversity Discovery. Areas of coordina- ers who believe science is relevant; and (3) tion would include sharing data and taxo- to present biodiversity information to park nomic expertise, developing a clearing- managers in an organized way that reveals house of information for planning events, biological patterns at a broader regional, or and using the information obtained to even national, scale. inform sound management decisions. This national umbrella of support would encour- The benefits of Biodiversity Discovery are age cooperation while keeping intact the multiplicative across different areas: grassroots initiative that has proven so suc- cessful. National Park Service v Fulfilling the conservation mission of the scientific tools at many parks and have National Park Service in the face of new emerged as vital efforts to ensure preserva- threats requires that the Service embrace tion of our living resources by combining new approaches to science. Biodiversity sound science and public passion. Discovery activities are already successful vi Biodiversity Discovery 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”). Our parks are home to plants and animals inventory and monitoring efforts that track that have disappeared in other parts of the known species over time, Biodiversity world because of development, habitat frag- Discovery focuses on little-known groups mentation, and resource overuse. Our parks such as insects, fungi, bacteria, and micro- serve as key areas to conserve biodiversity as scopic life—organisms that we are begin- climate change, human development, and ning to understand as key to ecosystem invasive species alter the landscape. integrity and resilience. Already, more than Preserving species small and large—from 40 park units across the country have lichen to polar bears—is a National Park planned or conducted different types of Service (NPS) mandate. Preserving our bio- Biodiversity Discovery activities. These diversity also ensures that future artists, stu- include multi-decadal All Taxa Biodiversity dents, and scientists will experience these Inventories (ATBIs) to document all species lands as park founders did long ago. in a geographic area, BioBlitzes that search for species within a given timeframe (often a Biodiversity Discovery, the term for a variety weekend), and more targeted activities such of efforts to discover and document the as afternoon Bioquests to collect rare living organisms in our parks, has emerged plants. The variety of Biodiversity Discovery as the foundation upon which parks can activities reflects the diversity of parks build sound, long-term plans for manage- themselves—their ecosystems, resources, ment and preservation. While biodiversity and science goals. inventory is a well-known idea, Biodiversity Discovery combines scientific and steward- Also diverse are the participants in ship goals. Unlike past inventory studies, or Biodiversity Discovery. Many parks have Biodiversity Discovery events focus on little-known groups, such as Hemiptera (“true bugs”) at the 2008 BioBlitz