Every year, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) sends more than 60 field technologists across the province in a massive effort to collect samples of biodiversity. They measure habitat characteristics at monitoring locations from a province wide grid of 1,656 randomly selected sites.
For more than a decade, this unique undertaking has involved ABMI field and laboratory staff entering data into a geographic information system (GIS) about the characteristics of habitats and species of plants and animals found. This is a large inventory, mapping, and monitoring effort that many governments have talked about, but few have been able to build. Thanks to the long-term commitment of the Government of Alberta and a consortium of scientists, knowledge of biodiversity and impacts continue to grow.