ATBI Conference of 2015 | Discover Life In America

Body

ATBI CONFERENCE, MARCH 19-21 AT THE PARK VISTA IN GATLINBURG ...
with keynote speaker Rob Dunn, scientist, author, and professor. The Annual ATBI Conference highlights the groundbreaking work of Discover Life in America with presentations from world renowned scientists, field trips, teacher and citizen workshops, and much, much more. Stay tuned! As we continue to build the conference agenda, we will keep updating the web links at the bottom.

Theme:

"Every Living Thing" - named after the title of one of Dr. Dunn's books.

More Conference Information

Researchers from around the world will gather to celebrate the organization’s conservation-based mission, its contribution to the greater scientific community, and its ongoing educational outreach pertaining to the unique biological diversity of GSMNP and beyond. DLIA researchers developed a powerful tool for documenting myriad forms of life within given ecosystems in the 1990s—the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI). Due to interest growing in this tool beyond the GSMNP, organizers expect scientists from around the world to attend the conference.

Scientists consider the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to be one of the most biodiverse places in North America. It is here that DLIA is working to inventory all species that exist in the park. The ATBI seeks to inventory the estimated 60,000 to 80,000 species of living organisms in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The project continues to develop checklists, reports, maps, databases, GIS tools, and natural history profiles that describe the biology of this rich and diverse ecosystem.

Conference participants will present broadly on a variety of topics, including the taxa that comprise GSMNP and other national parks and protected areas; species inventory and climate change; the human impact on biodiversity and community composition; and the use of technology in science.

Keynote Speaker Dr. Rob Dunn

Dr. Rob Dunn helps others grasp the complexity of the living world and of the people who study it. For Dr. Rob Dunn, the world remains a captivating place full of surprises. “Mystery,” the N.C. State University biologist likes to say, “still lurks around ordinary corners.” Exploring those corners through research and writing is perhaps what Dunn does best. An assistant professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Dunn is by training an ant scientist who investigates, as he puts it, “small, strange and sometimes obscure interactions in the living world — but interactions that matter in some bigger way.” Please join us for "A Special Evening with Dr. Rob Dunn" at the East TN History Center (Knoxville) on March 21, 2015.