It’s Time Once Again To Count the Birds, Bees and Plant Species at Rutgers University-Newark
2015 BioBlitz Is Scheduled for Sept. 16
above:Volunteers prepare to capture specimens during the 2012 bioblitz.
The urban environs of Rutgers University-Newark are home to the most diverse student body of any national university in the U.S., but did you know it also is a hotspot of biodiversity? RU-Newark is a true urban wilderness habitat; more than 140 bird species and more than 100 wild plants have been identified on its 38 acres.
Come Sept. 16, researchers hope to find more by again conducting an annual “BioBlitz,” a sort of census to determine how many plant and animal species share RU-N with the humans.
WHO: A team of students and faculty from the Rutgers University-Newark/New Jersey Institute of Technology Federated Department of Biological Sciences will swarm across Rutgers University-Newark to count how many different species of plants and animals live here.
WHAT: The BioBlitz will include special activities and experts who will answer questions at hourly “field labs,” from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., on the Norman Samuels Plaza in front of John Cotton Dana Library.
WHEN: Wed., Sept. 16, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (rain date Sept. 23)
WHERE: Throughout the campus and the Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., at Rutgers University, Newark
BACKGROUND: The Sept. 16 BioBlitz has three main goals:
- Help to raise awareness of how many types of nature actually live here
- Help evaluate the value of RU-N’s urban wilderness and the success of its ongoing urban nature restoration efforts
- Involve students, faculty and staff in the challenge and fun of looking for plants, insects, spiders, birds and others
- To celebrate the mid-point of the United Nations’ Decade of Biodiversity
Media contact: Carla Capizzi, capizzi@rutgers.edu
