The All Taxa Biological Inventory of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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556 Florida Entomologist 84(4) December 2001 THE ALL TAXA BIOLOGICAL INVENTORY OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK MICHAEL J. SHARKEY Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091 SYNOPSIS The history, organizational structure, and purpose of the all taxa biodiversity inventory (ATBI) of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are detailed. The benefits of the ATBI to the areas of Conservation, Education, and Science are explained. In December of 1997 scientists, educators, and cies that have been recorded from the Park to be administrators gathered in Gatlinburg, Tennes- about 9,800. Of this number, many are simply see to discuss the idea of an all taxa biodiversity published records of species occurrences and inventory (ATBI) of The Great Smoky Mountains therefore there is much to do before these species National Park and, after three days of exchanging can be considered “inventoried” for the Park. As ideas and opinions, the ATBI was born. An inven- Fig. 1 illustrates, some taxa such as mammals tory of this magnitude was attempted only once and vascular plants are well known but the meg- before, by D. Janzen in Guanacaste State in Costa adiverse groups like fungi and arthropods are Rica. For a number of reasons (financial and polit- barely known. Indeed, less than 6% of the inver- ical) this endeavor changed into a survey of se- tebrates are recorded! lected taxa over the whole of Costa Rica. Thus, the Our first mission is to collect all species. Of Great Smoky Mountains endeavor might be con- course it will not be necessary to collect black sidered the sole extant ATBI. bears or red oak trees, but collections will be nec- In this paper I want to briefly discuss what we essary for the vast majority of taxa. These then are trying to achieve and why such a herculean have to be named. Willing systematists must be task is important to society. recruited, who, in many cases, will have to de- scribe new species. Once there are names applied Purpose to organisms, the collection data must be incorpo- rated into a central database. Further, we want to For every species of life in the Park we want to construct illustrated, interactive, identification answer three questions: 1. What is it? 2. Where is keys for all taxa, including all species. Finally, we it? 3. What does it do? And, we want to make this in- intend to construct species homepages that pro- formation easily accessible to a wide range of users. vide images and a synopsis of basic information Most readers will recognize that two of these about each species, as well as links to other more questions are potentially endless pursuits to comprehensive sources of information. which more and more detail could be added. We One of the most prolific systematists in history are looking for only the most basic answers. Our was C. P. Alexander; a dipterist who described over quest can best be explained with a simple exam- 10,000 species in his lifetime. However, the aver- ple. If someone in the Great Smokies were to find age number of species “treated” by systematists to- an organism eating another organism, we would day is far less than this. Even those who research like to have the tools and information assembled diverse arthropod groups usually describe less to allow that person to identify the organisms to than a few hundred species in a lifetime. Natu- species. We would like to have a database that rally, alpha taxonomy is not the sole task of most would allow her/him to find out where and when systematists; all of us are involved in higher clas- they occur in the Park (and perhaps elsewhere). sification, teaching, biodiversity studies and other Finally, we would like to have a homepage for the research and duties. Nonetheless, imagine that the two species so that the user could access biologi- average taxonomist involved in the project could cal information, view images, and link to relevant treat 40 species each year. This would include the web sites and published articles. major components of the inventory: naming (describing) the species, recording the data in the The Magnitude of the Task (Fig. 1) database, constructing interactive keys, and pro- ducing species’ homepages. Some groups of organ- At one of the annual meetings of the ATBI we isms like the vertebrates and vascular plants could asked the participating biologists to estimate the be dealt with at a much greater annual rate, but 40 number of species that occur in the Park for their seems a reasonable average since most of the particular taxon of expertise. The tabulated result biodiversity is composed of relatively poorly stud- was 100,000 species. We know the number of spe- ied taxa. At this pace it would take 2,250 person- Symposium: Insect Behavioral Ecology—2000: Sharkey 557 Fig. 1. Pie charts illustrating the relative abundance of organisms in the Park and the relative abundance of what is known. years to deal with 90,000 species; it would take BENEFITS 100 systematists 22.5 years, and it would take 200 systematists 11.25 years to complete. I do Conservation not wish to discuss in detail the real monetary cost of this endeavor; but if all equipment, over- According the book of Genesis (4:14), God gave head, and personnel costs were calculated, the Man his/her first task, which was to name all the budget would be hundreds of millions of dollars. beasts of the land, all the fish of the sea, and all of I hope that I have impressed upon the reader the birds in the sky over the Garden of Eden. Con- that this is no trivial task; rather it is one of the trary to popular belief, this makes taxonomy the grandest scientific endeavors ever to be at- oldest profession in the world. This original task is tempted. It is comparable to the moon-shot or the repeated in the mythologies of most cultures, and human genome project. What are the benefits to with good reason. We can only benefit from natu- justify such a large expenditure of time and ral resources if they are known, protect ourselves money? Is it worth doing? Can it be done? from natural hazards if nature is known, and, 558 Florida Entomologist 84(4) December 2001 most immediately, we can conserve and protect that there are many species of life that are depen- only those natural resources that we are aware of. dent on the Fraser fir for their existence, either by It is inconceivable for any successful economic maintaining some necessary environmental pa- enterprise not to have an inventory of their prod- rameter or directly through the food chain. Most ucts and raw materials. Maintaining a ledger that of these species will be lost long before the last lists inventory is a basic responsibility that com- Fraser fir succumbs to disease. A survey con- panies owe to their shareholders . not to men- ducted by Fred Coyle (1997) on the spruce-fir tion the IRS. In the same way, is not the scientific moss spider (Microhexura montivaga) concludes community, including you and me, not responsible that the decline in the high elevation Fraser fir for providing an inventory of the natural re- canopy has caused extensive damage to the forest sources in the way of an all-species inventory? floor community, and has disturbed the fragile ec- This was recognized by the federal government on osystem that depends on protection afforded by August 25, 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson Fraser firs. How many, if any, species have been, signed an act creating the National Park Service, or will be, lost? How many of these were/are en- a new federal bureau in the Department of the In- demic to the Park? To determine what is being terior responsible for protecting the 40 national lost we must have some idea of what is there . parks and monuments then in existence and and we just do not. The first benefit of an all spe- those yet to be established. One of the original jus- cies inventory is that it will allow us to monitor tifications for the great expense of the park sys- the effects of environmental pollution and other tem was to “. to promote and regulate the use of disturbances to the environment, including our the . national parks . which purpose is to con- most recent great concern, global warming. serve the scenery and the natural and historic ob- jects and the wild life therein and to provide for Education the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the The educational benefits of the ATBI are enor- enjoyment of future generations.” (National Park mous and they are already being realized. The Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1). How can we con- curved line in Fig. 2 represents our present state serve and protect “the wildlife therein” if we don’t of knowledge about the Park biota. Thanks to the know what they are? efforts of D. K. Smith at the University of Tennes- There are many threats to the environment in see and many other botanists we have a lot of in- the United States and around the world. In the formation on the vascular plants of the Great Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) Smokies. We have much less information on the these environmental threats include the follow- species of fungi in the Park and still less on the in- ing: global warming, acid precipitation, ground- sects.