Urban Ecology Program Coordinator Omaha Permaculture Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Omaha Permaculture is a 501c3 environmental non-profit in the heart of North Omaha, in Nebraska.
Founded in 2016, this non-profit converts unwanted city lots, in often low income areas, into vital green space. An annual BioBlitz is hosted to record a visual survey, of flora and fauna seen. The following data is of the insects surveyed by Entomologist Dr. Ted Burk, professor at Creighton University, from 2016-2019 (with 2020 still being processed).
A composite list of unique species seen was 74 in 2017, 122 total in 2017, 154 total in 2018, and 183 total unique species seen in 2019; with a total of 12 orders and 77 families.
It is possible that we are seeing species richness increasing as these lots are being restored with native flora. It is also possible that the increase is simply the species accumulation curve, as our sample size increases. If this is the case, then the purpose would be to understand the amount of insects that exist in this space in order to preserve biodiversity, as well as to showcase how vital green space is in an inner city area.
