Priority Taxa

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park management staff have requested the following priority organism groups for new ATBI projects.

HIGH PRIORITY

Topics which are considered high priority for the Park include the following: 1) introductory projects to determine the diversity of speciose taxonomic groups, 2) projects which will essentially complete the inventory of a taxonomic group of any size; this includes associated activities such as data entry, taking images, and/or conducting analyses, and 3) projects to inventory groups or communities that are at known ecological risk.

Examples of high priority taxonomic groups:
1) Introductory Projects
Diptera (not including crane flies, mosquitoes, fruit
flies, horse/deer flies, and other groups that have been worked on)
Hymenoptera (parasitic wasps)
Hemiptera (terrestrial; especially aphids, fulgoroids)
Mites (free-living and parasitic)
Pseudoscorpions
Nematodes
Fungi (especially ascomycetes and aquatic groups)
Microbes (Protozoa, Archaea, Bacteria, Microsporidia,
viruses)
Annelids – Brachiobdellids

2) Complete Inventory
Crustaceans (esp. the crayfish and not including copepods)
Centipedes
Annelids (terrestrial earthworms)
Mecoptera
Acari
Mollusca (aquatic groups)
Odonata
Platyhelminthes
Lichens (foliose)
-many others

3) At-risk Communities (sampling an array of species
groups)
Fraser fir remnant areas
High elevation beech stands
Hemlock stands
Xeric cliffs/new lands on TN side of Rt. 129 corridor
Globally imperiled wetlands/other communities

MEDIUM PRIORITY

– Projects considered medium priority are those that are either a follow-up to previous work on a speciose taxonomic group, or involve taxonomic groups which are able to be inventoried effectively in 1 or 2 years. Other activities could include testing active versus passive sampling (e.g., compare bees collected from flowers vs. Malaise traps), or sampling so as to gather valuable ecological information (e.g., plants pollinated, or host data) not otherwise available.

Examples of medium priority taxonomic groups:
Coleoptera (cryptic or under-collected groups)
Hymenoptera (vespids, bees collected on plants)
Hemiptera (aquatic; some work is underway)
Hemiptera (terrestrial; especially tree hoppers,
leaf hoppers, stink bugs)
Orthopteroids
Diplura
Protura
Symphyla
Collembola
Diplopoda
Thysanoptera
Crustaceans (copepods)
Mollusca (land snails)
Lichens (crustose)

LOW PRIORITY

Taxonomic groups that currently are low priority are those for which the majority of species in the Park are believed known, or there is a larger funding source available for their study.

Examples of low priority taxonomic groups:
All vertebrate groups
Plants (vascular and non-vascular)
Siphonaptera
Psocoptera
Trichoptera
Plecoptera
Ephemeroptera
Neuroptera
Dermaptera
Hymenoptera (velvet ants, sawflies, ants)
Pauropods
Opilionids
Tardigrades
Annelids (aquatic earthworms)
Molluscs (bivalves)
Nematomorpha
Algae
Myxomycetes

Creative ideas for projects that advance practical knowledge of the Park’s biota for management purposes may also be considered by the Park for funding apart from the DLIA Grants Program. Discuss such ideas with Keith Langdon (Keith_Langdon@nps.gov) or Dr. Becky Nichols (Becky_Nichols@nps.gov).

For the full Request For Proposals pdf, click here.