An All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is an effort to compile the full list of species of all groups present in some area on the planet. No ATBI has ever been (or is ever likely to be) completed, but such efforts have provided striking insights into the largely undocumented diversity of the earth.  This class is an ongoing effort towards a working ATBI for the Bennington College campus (which is unusually diverse for its area). Each cycle of the class addresses some taxonomic or ecological group. Inventory efforts from past terms are compiled at http://wiki.bennington.edu/Bennington_Biodiversity_Project. Tentatively, the target for this term will be some group of arthropods (by far the most diverse taxonomic group in any terrestrial system). Possibly spiders and their kin. Students will learn the specialized tools for studying these organisms, become acquainted with their taxonomy and systematics (and with systematic concepts in general), and contribute to the Bennington College ATBI wiki (currently at over 600 species).  Expect to dedicate significant time in and out of class-time to field-based collecting and lab-based identification. This class can be taken multiple times for credit.

This course will be offered the first seven weeks of term.