In 1996, The U.S. National Park Service introduced the term bioblitz , and this past June, Temple Ambler Arboretum held its first bioblitz event focusing on finding and identifying as many different species as possible, in a specific area, over a short period of time.  So from 12pm. Saturday, June 23 to 12pm Sunday, June 24, 120 students, staff, faculty and members of the local community, studied a part of the Arboretum that has not previously been managed and has been transitioning from farmland to woodland over the last 50 years.  The report from this study was just released and states:

The 24-hour study was designed to identify as many different species as possible, including mammals, insects, plants, birds, amphibians, and fungi. This BioBlitz did not include a tally of each species identified, but rather a total count of unique species.

Participants reported data on species that they observed and identified, and the data was summarized into the total unique species types observed .  All participants were  either led on guided walks searching for birds, plants, insects and fungus, or observed on their own and recorded their findings.

In a 24 hour period, 236 total unique species were found and recorded. 126 of those were animals or insects, and 110 were plants or fungus.  The full results can be found here.

This first Bioblitz summary provides an important baseline for which future data can be compared and added:

This database of campus biodiversity will help to guide decision making regarding the management of the campus woodland landscape. The data will be shared with the Temple community as well as citizen science communities, the regional community and other interested parties. The BioBlitz data provides the Arboretum with information to help understand the current ecological health and resilience of the campus woodland and the ecosystem services it currently provides.

Bioblitz 2018 will be at 12 p.m. Saturday, June 23 through 12 p.m. Sunday, June 24.