Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative

10/21/2025

The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative Research Conference is happening October 31st-November 2nd!

This is an excellent opportunity to share your research, network with other researchers and naturalists, and to get an overview of the many different research projects on Nantucket and surrounding areas!

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Beth Orcutt, is Friday October 31st at the Nantucket Atheneum, with the conference itself scheduled for Saturday November 1st at Great Harbor Yacht Club.

We have two exciting excursions on Sunday November 2nd, exploring Polpis Harbor Watershed thanks to , and a tour of the Coskata-Coatue Refuge. Both events are free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Check out the link in our bio for conference & event registration!

Thank you to our funders Remain Fund, and thanks to
The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative aims to expand knowledge of understudied species and overall biodiversity across Nantucket, Tuckernuck, Muskeget, and surrounding waters, fostering collaboration, research, and data sharing among scientists, conservationists, and the public.

NBI comprises the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, Natural Resources Department, UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Nantucket Memorial Airport, Nantucket Land & Water Council, The Trustees of Reservations, Maria Mitchell Association, Nantucket Land Bank, Tuckernuck Land Trust, Mass Audubon, Nantucket Walkabout and Nantucket Shellfish Association.

10/08/2024

We had a blast on our NBI 20th Anniversary BioBlitz. In just 6 days we had more than 1,189 observations and 440 species! And photos are still coming in so those numbers will rise.

Thanks to all who came out and participated in the events. Check out our members organization’s pages for more photos of these great events.

Head on over to iNaturalist and search for “Nantucket Biodiversity” in the projects tab to get all the detailed results.

10/08/2024

We've had a great 20th Anniversary Celebration! Sharing some of our events from last week. Thanks to all who attended!

10/05/2024

09/20/2024

Event info and registration so now live! Tons of free programs throughout the first week of October. More details to follow. Mark your calendars and sign up today!

09/20/2024

Event information and registration is now live for the Nantucket Biodiversity 20th Anniversary celebration! Five days of Nantucket Biodiversity with free programs celebrating the flora and fauna of the land and waters around the island. See the event calendar for more information about how to register and participate.
https://www.nantucketbiodiversity.org/schedule-of-events

Linda Loring Nature Foundation Nantucket Land Bank Umass Boston Nantucket Field Station Nantucket Conservation Foundation The Maria Mitchell Association Nantucket Land & Water Council

09/13/2024

Save the date for our 20th Anniversary celebration! Five days of Nantucket Biodiversity with free programs celebrating the flora and fauna in f the land and waters around the island. Keep an eye out for next week’s announcement or events and registration details.

09/13/2024

Save the date for our 20th Anniversary celebration! Five days of Nantucket Biodiversity with free programs celebrating the flora and fauna of the land and waters around the island. Check back next week for more details about programs offered by our member organizations and how to register.

https://www.nantucketbiodiversity.org/nbi20th

Linda Loring Nature Foundation Nantucket Land Bank Nantucket Conservation Foundation Nantucket Field Station Nantucket Land & Water Council The Maria Mitchell Association

05/24/2024

It’s that time of year again… garlic mustard pull! The Nantucket Invasive Plant Species Committee started the weekly pulling events last week pulling invasive garlic mustard from open space by the Old Mill ( ). Volunteers from various island organizations filled more than 13 contractor bags full!

Are you interested in joining one of these pulls? Individuals from multiple conservation groups and people interested in non-native invasive species meet every Thursday morning for an hour and a half. To be added to the email list, contact IPSC co-Chair, Sarah Bois, [email protected].

02/01/2023

Did you know that since 2005, NBI has awarded $103,884 in funding to 124 different research projects expanding our knowledge of biodiversity on Nantucket, Tuckernuck, Muskeget, and the surrounding waters? Interested in conducting scientific research on Nantucket? Our 2023 grant application period is open here: https://www.nantucketbiodiversity.org/research-grants-program

12/07/2022

The application period for NBI's 2023 Small Research Grant cycle is now OPEN! This year we have two funding opportunities, General Biodiversity Research grants and Climate Change and Island Resilience Research grants. Full info here: https://www.nantucketbiodiversity.org/research-grants-program

09/21/2022

Next up in our Meet the NBI Grantees series 🔬 is Kimberly Candelario, a graduate student at Boston University! Her research aims to assess microbial 🧫 communities and their role in eelgrass 🌱 restoration. She collected some samples over the summer and which are undergoing DNA 🧬extractions and are being prepared to be sent for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Extracted DNA is looking great and has been amplifying in the PCR machine beautifully. She will have a second sample collection day in October and will then complete more DNA extractions and prepare them for sequencing with analysis of sequencing data beginning in the winter. This research will inform future eelgrass restoration projects on island and help conserve our biodiversity 🌎! We also would like to thank the Nantucket Shellfish Association who helped co-fund this project.