Editor’s note: The article below was originally published on the RAM Blog maintained by staff at the Royal Alberta Museum.
Written by: Matthias Buck, Assistant Curator, Invertebrate Zoology
As an entomologist and biologist, I get very excited about the arrival of spring. Finally, the long, dreary winter months are over and nature bursts back to life. Spring flowers, tender green leaves and of course all kinds of insects! It was the same for me this year, but the season started with a string of exciting scientific discoveries that I never anticipated.
One of my favorite aspects of my job as Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology is going on field trips to explore Alberta’s diverse ecosystems: the prairies, mountains and the boreal forest. But this spring I was reminded like never before that we are surrounded by biodiversity wherever we are, including in a big city like Edmonton—a diversity that still has a lot of unknowns and is always changing.