Survey Site Locations
The ABMI monitors biodiversity by sampling 1656 permanent sites distributed in a 20 km systematic grid across Alberta.
The precise geographic location of ABMI monitoring sites is confidential. Publicly available coordinates identify the location of terrestrial survey site to within 5.5 km of the precise geographic coordinate, or within a 95 km² area surrounding the publicly available ABMI coordinate. Terrestrial survey sites are not stratified and, therefore, environmental conditions are sampled in proportion to their availability on the landscape. For example, biodiversity monitoring sites exist in cities, public and private lands, industrial instillations, protected areas, and lakes.
Wetland survey sites are determined by selecting the nearest wetland within 10 km of the publicly available coordinate. The ABMI defines wetlands as bodies of water with an open surface area between 1 and 100 ha, with a maximum depth between 0.5 and 2 m, and as having a low probability of complete water evaporation within or between years, i.e. it is a permanent wetland. It must also have a well developed zone of wetland vegetation so that vegetation can be sampled effectively. The ABMI’s wetland selection criteria do not preclude human created or modified wetlands.
In addition to the 1656 core sites, the ABMI also collects data from sites off the core grid, at so-called “off-grid” sites. These sites are chosen to complement the ABMI’s systematic grid to improve sampling coverage along the gradient of human footprint levels and allow better estimation of relationships between biodiversity and human land use, as well as to address specific short-term questions. Off-grids sites are sampled with the same protocols as the main sites. The ABMI surveyed river and lake sites in 2007 and 2008. River and lake data collection has been discontinued. However, these data and information on data collection protocols are available by request at abmiinfo@ualberta.ca.
For more detailed information select ABMI Sites Surveyed to Date.
