I'm helping out my university's fledgling student chapter of The Wildlife Society. One of its big upcoming projects is a 24-hour BioBlitz to be held next month at a TWRA-owned greenway park in Middle Tennessee. TWRA, TDEC, two local Audubon Society chapters, and several other groups are participating, and have become quite enthusiastic about it. For those not familiar with BioBlitz, it is an event in which numerous experts and interested laypersons try to collect and identify as many organisms as possible in a particular area. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has had a lot of success with BioBlitzes.

Our BioBlitz will not be exhaustive; we'll be concentrating mainly on vascular plants, arthropods, and vertebrates, and possibly algae, as we don't have experts in any other groups available. There are some aquatic environments in this park that we want to sample for fish and other organisms, including a wooded slough and several springs and first order streams. The park also borders Cheatham Reservoir, but I don't know if we'll be sampling in it.

So the plan with regards to the slough is to set minnow and hoop traps out the night before the blitz. Then we will retrieve them the day of the blitz. The streams present a bit more of a problem: they are too shallow for traps. So I guess we will use D-nets and sample for fish at the same time as we sample for aquatic inverts and salamander larvae. Hopefully we can do this without damaging the streams much (amateurs can be over-enthusiastic). We may also do a little dip-netting in the slough, though we're trying to keep people out of the slough as much as possible; it has a robust cottonmouth population.

It looks like I'm going to be the ID guy for both fish and herps. And I'm designing the complimentary event T-shirt. Wish me luck!

Hopefully we can do this without damaging the streams much (amateurs can be over-enthusiastic). We may also do a little dip-netting in the slough, though we're trying to keep people out of the slough as much as possible; it has a robust cottonmouth population.

It looks like I'm going to be the ID guy for both fish and herps. And I'm designing the complimentary event T-shirt. Wish me luck!

I have participated in a BioBlitz before they are a lot of fun.

Many people are worried about damaging the stream when kick seining, but the "damage" you would do is extremely little compared to a rain storm. The only damage that I would be slightly cautious about is when you will be sampling, salamander egg masses may be on the bottom of some rocks during this time, which you probably aready know. Have fun, and glean from all of the different knowledge that will be there. Enjoy.

Edited by Scenicrivers, 06 March 2008 - 09:47 PM.

I participated in a BioBlitz on the Walls of Jericho property in Jackson County in NE Alabama. This is state property, and the State Lands Division arranged for a wide range of biologists to participate. The event lasted from Friday - Sunday, with many people camping out on the site. I took some students and spent the day seining in Hurricane Creek on the property; a group from Auburn showed up the next day and electroshocked the creek. Between us we ultimately found 36 fish species (intererstingly, we've never found madtoms in this creek, and later that summer found sawfin shiners and blotchside logperch). If you're serious about finding stream organisms you'll have to be aggressive; and like was said before, I wouldn't worry about darter dance seining doing any real damage to a stream bed; it's the only way to collect darters, especially, unless you electroshock.

Well, the BioBlitz went down on Saturday, 29 March. It was cool and rainy, which kept both volunteers and animals in hiding. Here's the haul of fish, amphibians, and reptiles; all of the fish were caught in minnow and hoop traps. Please correct my fish nomenclature if it's out of date; I can't keep up with these things.

Etheostoma flabellare- Fantail Darter. Lots of these in the streams, including several ripe females.
Lepomis cyanellus- Green Sunfish. Numerous juveniles in the largest stream sampled.
Lepomis gulosus- Warmouth. A single juvenile in a lotus-choked bay of Cheatham Lake.
Lepomis macrochirus- Bluegill. Numerous juveniles in the large stream and in the bay.
Lepomis megalotis- Longear Sunfish. A single adult in the bay.
Lythrurus ardens- Rosefin Shiner. Large and plentiful in the two largest streams sampled.
Phoxinus erythrogaster- Southern Red-bellied Dace. Also plentiful in the largest stream. Only a few showing breeding colors.

Acris crepitans- Northern Cricket Frog. Adults abundant throughout.
Anaxyrus americanus- American Toad. Several males calling in floodplain.
Desmognathus conanti- Spotted Dusky Salamander. Numerous adults found in small streams and floodplain.
Eurycea cirrigera- Southern Two-lined Salamander. A single larva found in a stream pool.
Notophthalmus viridescens- Eastern Newt. Several very large adults in floodplain pools and beaver swamp. All females gravid; one pair amplexing in trap.
Plethodon dorsalis- Northern Zigzag Salamander. Numerous adults, both patterned and lead phase, found under cover along slopes.
Pseudacris crucifer- Spring Peeper. Numerous males calling in floodplain.

Agkistrodon piscivorus- Cottonmouth. A single adult found bludgeoned to death on trail.
Carphophis amoenus- Eastern Wormsnake. A single adult found under cover at base of bluff.
Diadophis punctatus- Ringneck Snake. Numerous individuals found under cover along slopes.
Nerodia sipedon- Midland Watersnake. A single adult found beneath limestone slab on slope.
Plestiodon fasciatus- Common Five-lined Skink. A single juvenile found beneath a log along trail.
Plestiodon laticeps- Broad-headed Skink. A single adult female found beneath a limestone slab along trail.
Thamnophis sauritus- Eastern Ribbonsnake. A single adult found beneath a log along trail.
Virginia valeriae- Smooth Earthsnake. A single adult found beneath limestone slab on slope.

A little disappointing; we missed a number of species that are common in the area. But still, not too shabby.

What is the main purpose of a BioBlitz?
How does one organize such a thing?

I've been trying all day today to think of a way to get some sort of county ichthyological survey done, but this sounds pretty good, too.

The purpose of a BioBlitz is to do a fast, intensive survey of a well-defined area to describe all of the species present (at least up to a point). It has value both as an inventory of biodiversity, and also for publicity reasons.

That's it exactly!

Mysteryman- the BioBlitz is not really an effective tool for a county-sized area. They can be used in large areas, but it requires enormous numbers of personnel, and good luck getting them together!

Great Smoky Mountains National Park conducted numerous BioBlitzes as part of their All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), but theirs were a little different than ours: Each taxonomic group had its own Blitzes, with a group of experts and volunteers converging over a certain span of days to sample throughout the park; these were repeated at various times. Our BioBlitz was a one day, one time event, and so not really effective as an inventory. For example, we did not find any summer-breeding frogs, even though they certainly occur there. But it was a great public-relations tool, and a chance for people from different organizations, as well as interested laymen, to come together.

Hmmm... very interesting.

Okay, so a BioBlitz wouldn't work for a county for many reasons. Drat.

I suppose I should start a new thread for my next questions so as to let ya'll get back to the blitzing fun.