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On 8/16/2013 6:01 AM, Phil Schappert wrote:
>> Has the Butterfly Atlas in the Maritimes or elsewhere in NA been going
>> on long enough to provide any useful data on population trends for
>> these species?
>
> It's not really the right kind of data, Nancy, since it's concerned with
> diversity/distribution and not abundance. My own survey work this year
> has found every species I expected to see about where and when I
> expected to find them BUT I had to put in a lot more effort this year
> because there are just not as many individuals flying.
* but for so many taxa, that's the only kind of data it's practical to
gather. The dual problems with the kind of long term trends we've been
discussing in this thread is that 1) it's nearly impossible to find
funding to take the time to gather up the longterm data (including
qualitative musings such as those in this thread) that exist, and then
to analyse them appropriately, and 2) when you're dealing with a popular
taxon like Birds, where the effort for such analysis can be eked out,
the totally frightening results of the analyses, because they're over
the "long" term, which gov't and consumerist society are ill-equipt to
respond to, don't elicit any reaction.
Look at the Carbon dioxide data in the Keeling Curve from the Mauna Loa
Observatory - it requires a complete remaking of society (already
mandated by many other considerations) if we and other species are to
persist, and the the present federal gov't's response is - "let's
accelerate the process of raping ourselves for doubtfully-useful money."
fred.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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