All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory
Tennessee is fortunate to have over fifty state parks which include natural areas, archaeological sites, historic sites and recreational parks. All have one thing in common: natural features including complex levels of flora and fauna. Due to the sheer size of most areas, high biological diversity, and lack of continuous studies and monitoring, many parks lack inventories and information about the many plants, animals, and other life forms that reside in them. Such information is vital to protect our parks from major environmental problems such as invasive non-native species, pollution, increasing development and other man-made disturbances.
It is for these reasons that Tennessee States Parks initiated an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) patterned after the ATBI that has been conducted within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for several years. Currently, Tennessee has the only program being conducted state-wide within a state parks system although several other states are conducting ATBIs within individual parks.
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The purpose of the ATBI is to inventory and monitor biological features with the parks using park staff, local schools, colleges and universities, friends groups, and volunteers from the community that have an expertise or interest in the program. Data gathered by the ATBI program will help us identify plants and animals we did not know were in the area and, perhaps, identify organisms new to science.
Already, the program has identified several species that are new records for the county in which they were found or are new records for the state. The Big Bluet (Enallagama durum), a damsel fly is a new record for the state as is the Marine Blue (Leptotes marina), a butterfly.
As part of the ATBI initiative, a database is being developed which will enable anyone with internet access to see what has been found in the parks. When the database is completed, one will be able to link to the database from here.
For additional information about this program, contact biologists LinnAnn Welch (linnann.welch@state.tn.us) or David Hill
(david.r.hill@state.tn.us).
