BiodiverCity Challenge 2022: Calgary Metropolitan Region's Journal

June 8, 2023

2023 installment of the Biodiversity Challenge starts at midnight tonight!

Hi everyone;
Just thought I'd let everyone from last year's project know that we're doing it again this year - the Alberta Biodiversity Challenge, with nodes in metro Edmonton, metro Calgary, as well as some smaller centers and all the provincial and national parks in Alberta, gets going in a couple of hours. It runs from June 8 to 11th. Feel free to participate, and to join the 2023 project if you wish:
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/metro-calgary-biodiversity-challenge-2023
happy hunting!
Greg Pohl
volunteer bioblitz coordinator

Posted on June 8, 2023 03:50 AM by gpohl gpohl | 0 comments | Leave a comment

August 21, 2022

Fall 2022 Biodiversity Challenge - Sept. 15-18

Hello;
We're running another bioblitz, Sept. 15-18, to keep the iNaturalist momentum going. Pretty much the same rules as the June bioblitz - feel free to join the project and participate.
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/fall-2022-metro-calgary-biodiversity-challenge
Greg Pohl

Posted on August 21, 2022 06:32 AM by gpohl gpohl | 0 comments | Leave a comment

August 4, 2022

Final results for the June 2022 Biodiversity Challenge bioblitz

The final results for the June bioblitz are now in. From June 9 - 12, we had a total of 1146 observations, of 395 species, by 153 different observers. That's a few more observations than the official observations and observers counts in my previous post, which were taken as of June 19 and used for the friendly competition with other municipalities. See that post for details of observations and observers. Metro Edmonton wins the final species count, with 841 species. Whiteshell Park, MB, had the highest species count per capita (134 species; 0.00268 species per resident).
Calgary had two "Super iNatters" - people who racked up 200+ observations, and/or 100+ species. Congratulations to @ammlmt with 217 observations of 145 species, and @base736 with 135 observations of 57 species.
We set up this project as part of a series of summer bioblitzes, across western Canada and northwestern USA. We hope to run spring, summer and fall bioblitzes every year, hopefully we can do a little publicity before the next one, scheduled for Sept. 15-18, 2022.
If you're interested in coordinating this or another bioblitz in western Canada, get in touch with me.
Greg Pohl - iNat user @gpohl
volunteer bioblitz coordinator

Posted on August 4, 2022 04:38 AM by gpohl gpohl | 0 comments | Leave a comment

June 22, 2022

Thanks for participating in the June Biodiversity Challenge!

Hello iNatters;
We did well in metro Calgary, despite not alot of publicity; our preliminary results as of midnight Sunday was 145 observers, with 1101 observations of at least 325 species. The deadline has passed for uploading observations, but we can continue to get them identified for another 6 weeks before the numbers are final.
We'd set up a friendly competition with 14 municipalities in western Canada, and that "Prairie Division" also competed with 72 municipalities in a "Northern Rockies division" including AK, YT, and counties and municipalities in BC, WA, OR, ID, MT, and WY. Results are as follows:
1a. Highest participation rate (observers per capita, or "Environmental Engagement Index"): Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.100% of residents posted observations.

  • runner-up: NWT (pop. 45515): 0.042% of residents posted observations.
    1b. Highest absolute #observers: tie between metro Edmonton and metro Calgary with 145 observers each.
    2a. Most observations per capita: Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.042 observations/resident.

  • runner-up: Saskatoon SK (pop. 300000): 0.003 observations/resident.
    2b. Highest absolute #observations: metro Edmonton: 2915 observations.

  • runner-up: Winnipeg, MB: 1565 observations.
    3a. PRELIMINARY Most species per capita: Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.022 species/resident.

  • runner-up: NWT (pop. 45515): 0.001 species/resident.
    3b. PRELIMINARY Highest absolute #species: metro Edmonton: 690 species.

  • runner-up: Winnipeg, MB: 337 species.
  • The top individual observer was @seraphinpoudrier from Winnipeg, MB, with a phenomenal 1265 observations of at least 259 species. That was most of Winnipeg's observations.
    If you're a stats junkie and want to dig into the numbers further, check out this umbrella project with all the Prairie Division results:
    https://inaturalist.ca/projects/2022-prairie-biodivercity-challenges
    Note the number of observers and observations is final now, but the number of species will change over the next 6 weeks as more identifications are done. Obviously a place like Calgary with a large population is going to do better with overall numbers, which is why we calculated results per capita - those are a much better measure of participation. The competition is just for fun, but we'll keep track and see if more people get involved in future years. Additionally the data will be on iNaturalist permanently, where it will help scientists to track changing species distributions and do other research. Our underlying goals are to get more people engaged with nature, and to generate useful data while they're at it.
    The overall winners from among all 86 Prairie and Northern Rocky Mountains municipalities are as follows:
    1a. Highest participation rate (observers per capita, or "Environmental Engagement Index"): Clark Co., ID (pop. 827): 0.363% of residents posting observations.

  • runner-up: Teton Co., WY (pop. 24049) 0.308% of residents posting observations.
    1b. Highest absolute #observers: Alaska: 266 observers.

  • runners-up: metro Edmonton and metro Calgary: 145 observers each.

2a. Most observations per capita: Bear Lake Co., ID (pop 6368): 0.054
observations/resident.

  • runner-up: Whiteshell Provincial Park, MB (pop. 5000): 0.042
    observations/resident.
    2b. Highest absolute #observations: metro Edmonton: 2915 observations.

  • runner-up: Alaska: 1781 observations.

3a. PRELIMINARY Most species per capita: Bear Lake Co., ID (pop. 6368) 0.029
species/resident.

  • runner-up: Whiteshell Provincial Park, MB (pop. 5000) 0.022 species/resident.
    3b. PRELIMINARY Highest absolute #species: metro Edmonton: 690 species.

  • runner-up: Alaska: 588 species.

Thanks again for participating! I'll send out some information on the final species results in 6 weeks.
Greg Pohl
volunteer bioblitz coordinator

Posted on June 22, 2022 08:51 PM by gpohl gpohl | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 29, 2022

Welcome to the BioDiverCity Challenge: Calgary!

The Calgary region is joining almost two dozen municipalities in western Canada and northwestern USA, to participate in a bioblitz, June 9-12.
You don't have to "join" this project to have your observations tabulated in the bioblitz; it automatically includes all public iNaturalist observations within the boundaries and time frame. But feel free to join if you'd like occasional updates and a summary of the results (and to find out about future bioblitzes in metro Calgary).

Guidelines for the bioblitz are as follows:
Observation Dates: observations must be made between 12:01AM June 9, and midnight June 12, 2022.
Boundaries: Municipal city limits for Calgary, Airdrie, Okotoks, Chestermere, and Cochrane, plus Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.
Observations: All observations made to iNaturalist within the boundary and time frame are automatically tabulated in the results for each region, not including captive or cultivated organisms. Casual observations (obs. of captive or cultivated organisms, and/or those without supporting photos or sound files) are allowed, but if they account for more than 5% of our observations, then for the purposes of the regional bioblitz competition (see below), our results will be recalculated to exclude those casual observations.
Reporting dates: you must upload your observations to iNaturalist by midnight June 19. Note - if your submission date is after June 12, make sure the observation date is correct and is between June 9-12, to be tabulated in the bioblitz.
Preliminary results: compiled after midnight June 19.
Final results: tabulated as of midnight July 31. We're allowing another 6 weeks here for people to make identifications; much longer than for the recent City Nature Challenge.

Guidelines for some friendly competition:
A total of (at least) 10 western Canadian municipalities, and 12 northwestern USA municipalities are participating in the 2022 Biodiversity Challenge. To help drum up some 'buzz', and get some friendly competition going, we're having a competition, to see which region can get the most participants, observations, and species. Recognizing that some municipalities have much larger human populations than others, the results will all be calculated per capita - by simply dividing by the human population of the region. The competition categories are:

  1. Most observers (per capita)
  2. most observations (per capita)
  3. most species (per capita)
    There are no monetary awards or trophies, just annual bragging rights at this time.
    We encourage people to set personal challenges and goals as well. Some suggestions that people may want to strive for are:

  4. see if you can post 50 (or 100, or...??) species each day, or over the 4 days
  5. how many species can you find in your yard?
  6. how many kingdoms or phylums (technically 'phyla') of life can you observe?

Contact me, the project manager if you have any questions
Greg Pohl (iNat user gpohl)
volunteer bioblitz coordinator

Posted on May 29, 2022 10:31 PM by gpohl gpohl | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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