What is it about?
This article summarizes the 40 year history of a project to survey arthropods of Canadian grasslands. It examines the challenges of undertaking such a vast project, which included building a core group of supporters, retaining their engagement, and distributing the results of their research in a manner that was both cost-effective and readily accessible by the general public.
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Why is it important?
Canada's native grasslands are at a fraction of their original extent, being dramatically altered by agriculture, resource development, and urbanization. The project was initiated to capture baseline information on the native arthropod communities of these grasslands, document changes in these communities since European colonization, and to identify arthropod taxa in particular need of further study to fully document their species richness.
Perspectives
My involvement in this project was a chance to be part of a grandiose vision that ultimately was fulfilled with publication of the 4-volume set (thus far) of "Arthropods of Canadian Grasslands", which are free available at https://biologicalsurvey.ca/pages/read/arthropods-of-canadian-grasslands. It was also my first adventure into editing books and 'print-on-demand' publication.
Kevin Floate
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Arthropods of Canadian grasslands: a retrospective of a 40-year project of the Biological Survey of Canada, The Canadian Entomologist, September 2017, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.4039/tce.2017.46.
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