400,000 Observations and Counting!

Congratulations to Ned Swanberg for making Vermont Atlas of Life history! On April 26th 2020, Ned observed a patch of Dutchman’s Breeches in Montpelier not knowing that they were destined to be the 400,000th observation contributed to the Vermont Atlas of Life project on iNaturalist. Now creeping towards 410,000 observations, this project is one of the largest biodiversity datasets ever gathered in Vermont. Ned is joined by almost 8,000 other naturalists who have helped make this accomplishment possible.

How many species occur in Vermont? You’d think we’d know this for a small state steeped in a rich tradition of naturalists. But, the simple answer is, no one really knows. We do know how many species there are of some of the popular taxonomic groups like birds (currently 382) and mammals (58). But how many invertebrates are there in Vermont? A back-of-the-envelope estimate puts the number at just over 21,400 species! There are about 2,150 species of vascular plants, with approximately 1,400 native plants. Not including protists, bacteria or viruses, we humans share Vermont with at least 26,000 to 45,000 species.

Join our growing community of citizen naturalists from around the Green Mountain State in discovering and sharing observations of Vermont life. Your observations can be turned into research-grade, citizen science data that will help us discover, track and ultimately conserve our natural heritage.

Read the 2019 year in review for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist and learn about all the amazing discoveries that were made.

Publicado el abril 28, 2020 08:36 TARDE por emilyanderson2 emilyanderson2

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