75% decline of insects in 27 year study done in Germany!!
Community Engagement Information Night: Metchosin Flying Insect Biomass Project
The Metchosin rural ecosystem offers an opportunity to study arthropod biomass from the coastline to the altitudinal limits of the municipality. Unprecedented opportunities exist to investigate species responses to impacts from local disturbances such as residential and industrial development, and large spatial-scale impacts associated with climate change such as increased fire risk, increased drought and erosion events. Biological processes (e.g., pollination) are related to interactions with environmental quality (e.g., natural environments) and this project will implement a new monitoring program to investigate these impacts on local residents and their interactions with the surrounding biosphere.
This evening will include:
General Meet and Greet
A. An Introductory seminar explaining the project. This PowerPoint presentation will include:
- Proposed idea for the development of a community-driven environmental project engaging member of Metchosin in a local nature and environmental biodiversity conservation project
- Defining flying insect biomass and the purpose of this study
- Question/answer time
B. Adopting a Malaise trap (a trap will be set up to view, likely outside!)
- How to set up and service the trap
- How the trap operates
- Samples collected from a trap
- How to adopt a trap and become directly involved with this project
- Question/Answer time
C. An Introduction to Insects most likely to be collected in this study
- Interactive display/question/answer
Short Biography: Neville Winchester, University of Victoria
Dr. Neville Winchester is currently a research entomologist and a teaching staff member in the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Victoria. His special areas of research and interest include diversity of arthropods, ancient rainforest ecology and conservation biology. Currently he is on the Board of Directors for the International Canopy Network (ICAN), is a Project Manager and Principal Investigator for the conservation of Ethiopian Church Forests. He has served as the President of the Entomological Society of British Columbia, scientific committee member for the Biological Survey of Canada, and is a member of the Entomological Society of Canada and The Society for Conservation Biology. His doctoral work in the Carmanah Valley was instrumental in its eventual protection as a provincial park and he continues to demonstrate the uniqueness of these areas, with emphasis on the organisms that live in the canopies of British Columbia’s ancient rainforests. As well as doing research in temperate ecosystems, he has done high canopy work in French Guiana, Gabon, Malaysia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Northern Ethiopia and just recently in Panama as part of an international biodiversity project (IBISCA).
Short Biography: Kennedy Nikel, University of Victoria
Kennedy Nikel is entering her fourth and final year as an Honours Biology student with a concentration in Marine Biology. She has a passion for conservation research, either marine or terrestrial. Her past summers as an undergraduate student were spent at Bamfield Marine Science Centre, where she practiced extensive field research in relation to conservation and climate change. After completing the entomology course offered at University of Victoria, it was apparent to her that the ability to determine factors driving species diversity and biomass trends of flying insects has never been more crucial for conservation and economic purposes.