Frost Museum Biodiversity Surveys

Insects and other invertebrates make up over 2/3 of all global biodiversity. The food web, pollination, decomposition and many other habitat functions depend on healthy insect populations. They are vital players in ecosystem processes, but they are generally disregarded when land managemnt decisions are made. Only recently have people realized the importance of insect diversity, and the many ways that insects contribute to our natural and agricultural areas.

Frost Museum staff have conducted several biodiversity surveys, with an emphasis on terrestrial arthropods. Here are some recent projects:

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia - In August 1997, a team from the Frost Museum collected invertebrates from hemlock stands in Shenandoah National Park. Read more about it here (pdf).

Gettysburg National Battlefield, Adams County, Pennsylvania - During a one-week intensive sampling period in July at the base of Big Round Top, over 15,000 individual insects were collected by Frost Museum staff. A second intensive sampling was completed in the Codori-Trostle thicket area of the park in August. This survey was part of a larger park-wide inventory which included birds, mamals, reptiles, and amphibians.

Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Training Center, Dauphin and Lebanon Counties, Pennsylvania - In summer of 2003, Museum staff systematically sampled a number of habitat types located at Fort Indiantown Gap. Sorting is on-going, but to date, almost 500,000 invertebrates have been counted, including 3 newly discovered species. Read more about the project here.