{"id":604,"date":"2017-09-01T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T21:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/bioblitz\/?page_id=604"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:55:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:55:36","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/bioblitz\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About our BioBlitz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A BioBlitz is a time-limited biological inventory whose goal is to find as many species of organisms as possible in a particular space. The National Park Service conducted the very first BioBlitz at Kenilworth Park in Washington D.C. in 1996. In 2013, Macaulay Honors College had its very first BioBlitz in Central Park as the opening event for its new Science Forward curriculum. Over 300 sophomores teamed up with about 40 scientists to find a total of 571 different species in the park, including a few that had never been seen before there. In 2014, our students and scientists focused on the Thain Family Forest in the New York Botanical Garden, which is the largest piece of old growth forest in New York City. We found 530 species at the NYBG BioBlitz, excluding our microbial diversity analysis. In 2015, Macaulay conducted a BioBlitz at Freshkills Park on Staten Island and found 320 species on what was once the world\u2019s largest landfill. In 2016, we held our BioBlitz at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a new park built on reclaimed shipping piers. We completed a five-borough cycle with a BioBlitz at Alley Pond Park in Queens in 2017 and returned to Manhattan for a BioBlitz at Inwood Hill Park in 2018. In 2019, we had paired Brooklyn locations, Green-Wood Cemetery and the Gowanus Canal.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In 2020 and 2021, we made some adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ran completely remote BioBlitzes. Students collected data via iNaturalist from wherever they were and they got to interact with the scientists and naturalists who would have led our teams at an in-person BioBlitz through a series of “Meet the Virtual Taxon Leader” webinars. We returned to in-person events with our 2022 Randall’s Island BioBlitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two main goals of the BioBlitz are to educate students about the science of ecology in the city and cataloguing as many species as possible in the given time period. Students get a transformational educational experience with real scientific data collection in a complex ecosystem and also contribute to the environmental monitoring efforts of their local area.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a detailed history of our BioBlitz and Science Forward, check out: <\/p>\n\n\n\n