UT's Energy, Environment
and Resources Center Presents
Smoky Mountain
Resource Issues in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
SIGHTLINE
FALL/WINTER 2002
Vol. 3 No. 2
***
Editor: David Brill; Assistant Editor: Constance Griffith; Writers: Kris Christen, Lisa Byerley Gary, Elise LeQuire, Dennis McCarthy, and Becky Nichols. Graphic Designer: Lisa Byerley Gary.
SIGHTLINE is published on behalf of
Great Smoky Mountains National
Park
by the
Energy, Environment and Resources
Center (EERC)
at the
University of Tennessee.
EERC conducts research designed to promote real-world solutions to problems in the fields of energy, environment, technology, and economic development.
For additional information, write EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, call 865-974-4251, or visit our Web site at http://eerc.ra.utk.edu.
SIGHTLINE is sponsored by:
and
Creature Feature
An
ambitious and ongoing project continues to find new species in Great Smoky
Mountains National Park.
by Becky Nichols
The All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) in the Smokies experienced a productive year, holding seven “bio-quest” collecting events, eight trail surveys, and several training days and workshops. ATBI also hosted many scientists from throughout the United States and abroad.
During 2002, we conducted bio-quests for each of the following taxonomic groups: bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, hornworts), millipedes, Lepidoptera (moths, butterflies), protista (single-celled organisms), snails, bats, and slime molds. The trail surveys yielded distributional information on ferns and Turk’s cap lilies.
The Lepidoptera bio-quest was ATBI’s largest event. Early in June, 30 lepidopterists, more than two dozen volunteers, and two llama teams (to help carry the equipment) set out across Great Smoky Mountains National Park to identify as many species of butterflies and moths as they could within 24 hours.
The one-day total of species found was 860, including a significant proportion of the entire lepidopteran fauna of eastern North America. We recorded roughly 133 species for the first time (in the Park), and an estimated 51 species previously undescribed. One prospective graduate student and five Ph.D. students participated, and more than 70 students from area schools had a chance to observe the event as well as to work with scientists and specimens.
As a result of ATBI’s many collecting events and scientists working on identifications off-site as well, the number of new-to-science species found so far is 296, and the number of new records for the Park stands at 2,198. These numbers change almost daily, as more identifications and confirmations come in. Recent additions of new-to-science species include lichens, symphylans, Collembola (springtails), Coleoptera (beetles), and Lepidoptera.
Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Natural History Association have provided an increase in the grant program for fiscal 2002-2003, distributing $100,000 among 24 winning proposals, from a field of 44, for ATBI work. This past year, some 260 researchers—including a lichenologist from Norway, a pauropod expert from Sweden, a mycologist from Russia, and a hymenopterist from Ottawa—worked on ATBI projects.
For more information, contact Becky Nichols, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1314 Cherokee Orchard Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, call 865-436-1702, or email <becky_nichols@nps.gov>.