Welcome to the NBP's official website!

The Northern Biodiversity Program is a collaborative research initiative that uses insects and spiders as models for monitoring environmental change across the boreal, sub-arctic, and high-arctic eco-climatic zones. Details of the project's research, publications, study sites, and related information can be found here.

What's New

Field season 2011!

We are excited to be into our second full field season.  During the summer of 2011 our field teams will be sampling in Yellowknife (NT), Norman Wells (NT), along the Ogilvie Mountains (YT), in Kugluktuk (NU), Cambridge Bay (NU), and on Banks Island (NT).   We will also be returning for a short time to Iqaluit (NU) to follow up on some work done in 2010.  Teams departed from Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal on 6 June, and will be returning, with samples, by the end of July.   Follow our blog to stay in touch with our field teams.

We are also beginning to work closely with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, in Ottawa.  We have two students working in the CNCI this summer to help database specimens that were collected as part of the 1/2 century-old Northern Insect Survey.  

Field Season 2010: Sample Processing - almost complete

The Fall of 2010 and Winter/Spring of 2011 were devoted to a lot of sample processing.  We are pleased that the bulk of our raw sorting is complete and a lot of our graduate students have started working on species identifications.  It's too early to comment specifically on findings, but without a doubt, our protocols worked well, and the quality of our data will be high.  This puts all of us in good spirits as we head out for our second field season.  

NBP Blog

Field Season 2011...