5317 New Species - 651 NEW TO SCIENCE

Not only do we see new species of animals, plants and related biologic life being discovered, it happens all over the world. For over half a decade, the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) has been performing a thorough chronicle of the biodiversity within the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. To date there have been 5317 new species identified. Of these 5317 species, 651 are new to science, the rest are new to the park. By "new" we are meaning simply they were not confirmed to be present in the region itself.

Of these species new to science:

Over 70 Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths)
60 Collembola (springtails)
Over 25 Hymenoptera (bees , ants)
Over 70 Arachnids
Over 90 different bacteria
70 different fungai

The following information is from the ATBI's websight:


There has been much written about the accelerating crisis in protecting global biodiversity. This is not just a tropical issue, but it is also an issue in the U.S. How are we to make critical decisions about protection, when we do not even know what species exist, or what their relative abundance and distribution are? An All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is a concentrated effort to determine all species within a given area within a short time frame. The ATBI at Great Smoky Mountains National Park was conceived in late 1997, in part as a prototype for other reserves.
Discover Life in America, Inc. (DLIA) is the non-profit that is made up of scientists and educators who wish to make this project happen and to help encourage other such efforts. The US National Park Service (USNPS) has cooperative agreements in place with DLIA to allow the transfer of funding and provide mutual support for this mission.

Scientific Approach: Basic approaches for sampling were worked out by late 1998 and funding was sought for a pilot program. Sampling for the structured part of the pilot design (described below) began in fall 2000. The Smokies ATBI is using 2 parallel, complimentary approaches: the Traditional and Structured.
The Traditional approach utilizes the knowledge and experience of taxonomic specialists, who visit the Park and make collections of their organisms. Included here are "bio-blitzes" or forays, which bring together large numbers of specialists and volunteers of all ages for a short and intensive effort to collect large numbers of the target taxa. The often specialized techniques employed are the only way to sample some groups of life. Beneficial side effects are that many specialists in the same discipline who have never worked together, finally get to collaborate, and cross-discipline contacts are easy and strongly encouraged.
The Structured approach is based on the use of selected, standardized, bulk sampling devices (traps) in an array of 1-hectare plots. The plots, only a few of which presently are in place, are distributed across the Smokies landscape using a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of physical, biotic, and historic land-use parameters is used to ensure as complete and objective coverage of the Parklands area as feasible. Samples from the plots are sorted to various taxonomic levels before being sent to authorities for identification. The Structured approach allows statistical comparisons among plots, traps, communities, topographies, disturbance histories, and other spatial and temporal factors, that are not possible with the Traditional approach. However, not all groups of organisms are reliably sampled with Malaise traps, pitfall traps, or other passive samplers. A key point: both approaches inform each other as to efficiency and completeness of the inventory in each habitat type.

No large mammals, no spectacular flying birds, no giant snakes or the like. But a rich diversity of life that has not been fully documented. What else remains to be found? We'll need to wait and see....

Craig Heinselman
Peterborough, NH