Our goal is to study, conserve, and enjoy nature. Everyone should contribute to the knowledge society needs to protect the planet's diversity of life and improve our environmental well-being. This site helps teachers, students, scientists, and other citizens to learn about nature and report their findings on the Web.

Despite centuries of work, we know relatively little about life on Earth. Millions of species are yet to be discovered, named, and studied. We do not understand the needs of most species to ensure their long-term survival. Only a worldwide network of schools, community groups, and citizen scientists, facilitated by scientists and technology, can assemble enough knowledge and wherewithal in the next 50 years to save many species from extinction. Do you want to identify animals and plants, set up study sites, contribute your observations and photographs, illustrate guides, create and test K-16 discovery-based lessons, go on expeditions, help your local land managers, and involve others in these and related activities? Please get involved and help.

In 1997 we began a study of all living things in the Great Smokies (see Newsweek & Science). This project, an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), is on-going and has the following mission:

"Our purpose is to develop a foundation of knowledge about all species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to better conserve and manage our natural heritage unimpaired today and for future generations."

In 2002 we started The Polistes Foundation to share know-how through Discover Life's Web sites and support science education, nature studies, and conservation everywhere, including the Smokies.

Use the blue links as a gateway to find information and join in the fun. --John Pickering

Discover Life, this Website, collects and disseminates information to understand, manage, conserve, enjoy, and benefit from the diversity of life on our planet. Discover Life in America, Inc., is a different organization conducting an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP)--a comprehensive study of all the species within the Park. By developing local, national, and international partnerships among educators, researchers, resource managers, and other concerned citizens, the ATBI gives individuals from all walks of life an opportunity to study nature. In helping with the research, school and community participants will get hands-on experience with scientific methods and state-of-the-art technology. Students will do science, use technology, and learn valuable skills such as how to collect, process, and present information in a meaningful way. They will learn to discover the diversity of life and uncover its wonders.

The GSMNP-ATBI will collect information on the distribution, abundance, and natural history of an estimated 100,000 species that inhabit the Park. Our goal is to disseminate information that is useful in resource management, science, education, and recreation. In particular, we wish to make detailed information on the natural history and ecology of all species available to the wider non-specialist audience. We plan to develop interactive identification guides and Web pages for each species. We will make these available through our site's All Living Things section. While completing the ATBI, we will develop methods, train personnel, and form partnerships that will facilitate inventories of other parks and conservation areas. We will not be involved with work on private land.

For background information and conservational concerns in the region, please see The Appalachians.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Mammoth Cave National Park is starting an ATBI. Here we demonstrate some of their initial data using mapping and identification tools on Discover Life.

• Map of Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) distribution
• IDnature guide to birds in Mammoth Cave National Park

We invite individuals who are interested in contributing to register under "Get Involved" and then contact us. In addition to research professionals, we encourage nature lovers from all walks of life, teachers, naturalists, photographers, writers, and others, young or old, to become involved.

The ATBI is organized into teams responsible for developing plans and coordinating each of the inventory's components. Meeting reports and minutes for this planning process are presented under Events. Here we present the charges, correspondence, and draft documents of the following:

Collecting Information Systems General Interactive Keys Labels, Unique Identifiers, & Barcodes Web Pages Inventory Design Mapping Nature Quests Science Fair Science Plan Strategic Plan & Budget Taxonomy Collection Management of Arthropods Volunteers & Community Involvement

Scientist Yuri Novozhilov (Russia) Photograph provided by Randy Darrah

• ATBI Quarterly Newsletters

• Discover Life in America
  • 2002 DLIA Grant Program Awardees (RFP)
  • 2002 DLIA Grant Program; Call for Proposals (RFP)
  • 2001 Mini-Grant Program Awardees
• Earthwatch
  • Earthwatch research support in National Parks (NP-GRSM)
• Environmental Protection Agency
  • Science to Achieve Results (EPA-STAR)
• National Science Foundation
  • Integrated Research Challenges in Environmental Biology (NSF-IRC)
  • Quantitative Environmental and Integrative Biology (QEIB)
• Setting National Policy
  • Science and Environmental Policy Update (SEPU)
• Scholarships
  • Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)
  • 3-Year Tupper Postdoctoral Fellowship

The concept and rationale of the GSMNP-ATBI is outlined in a Prospectus by Phil Francis et al. For information on a pilot study funded by the Friends of the GSMNP please see Insect Diversity Project. For background information on the concept of an ATBI, please see the following links: Taxon Assignment and Trial Species Home Pages.

Individuals wishing to help or seeking additional information should contact Keith Langdon, who coordinates the park's Inventorying and Monitoring Program, Chuck Parker, an aquatic biologist of the Biological Resources Division of the U. S. Geological Survey who is stationed within the park, or John Pickering, a collaborating insect ecologist at the University of Georgia.