• Date: July 9, 2022
  Time: 9:00am - 12:00pm
  Location: Ashton Prairie Living Labratory
  Iowa City, IA

What types of plants, animals, and fungal life might you find at the Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory? Let's find out! 

Join researchers in collecting, observing, and recording biodiversity at the Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory site in our 2nd Annual BioBlitz. Your findings will inform a major research project and will contribute to the second data point in a multi-year documentation of how diversity changes at this site over time. Collections will be housed with the UI Museum of Natural History collections, accessible for comparative data analysis for generations to come. 

Participants will have the opportunity to examine insects under professional microscopes, will learn how to identify a variety of species (with the iNaturalist app and the naked eye), and will learn how these collections and observations contribute to greater research and ecological health. Guests will also learn from leaders of the Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory about the vision for the prairie. Facilitators include University of Iowa Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Office of Sustainability and the Environment, UI WILD (Iowa Raptor Project, Iowa Wildlife Camps, and School of the Wild), UI Museum of Natural History, Geographical and Sustainability Sciences, Athletics, the Iowa City Science Booster Club, and visiting Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Sciences research students with additional support from the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research.

This is an all ages event, no experience required, families welcome. It will occur rain or shine. As this is the 2nd Annual event, we hope to see some young scientists who can grow along with the biodiversity at the prairie over the years.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

Register here.