User:ATekatch/sandbox

Freshet [Final Contribution]

[To be added to the Wikipedia page Freshet in installments]

Causes

Freshets are the result of the mass delivery of water to the landscape, either by snowmelt, heavy rains, or a combination of the two. Specifically, freshets occur when this water enters streams and results in flooding and high flow conditions. When freshets occur in the winter or early spring, the frozen ground can contribute to rapid flooding. This is because the meltwaters cannot easily infiltrate the frozen surface and instead run overland into rivers and streams, leading to a rapid flooding response. Deeper snow packs with large snow water equivalents (SWE) are capable of delivering larger quantities of water to rivers and streams, compared to smaller snowpacks, given that they reach adequate melting temperatures. When melting temperatures are reached quickly and snowmelt is rapid, flooding can be more intense. In areas where freshets dominate the hydrological regime, such as the Fraser River Basin in British Columbia, the timing of freshets is critical. In the Fraser River Basin, the annual freshet was observed 10 days earlier in 2006 compared to 1949. In these areas, earlier freshets can result in low flow conditions later in the summer or fall.

Freshets may also occur due to rainfall events. Significant rainfall events can saturate the ground and lead to rapid inundation of streams, as well as contributing to snowmelt by delivering energy to snowpacks through advection. In the tropics, tropical storms and cyclones can lead to freshet events.

Ecology

The magnitude of freshets depends on snow accumulation and temperature. Smaller freshets have been associated with El Niño conditions, where the milder conditions lead to lower snow accumulations. The opposite is true under La Niña conditions. Runoff from freshets is a major contributor of nutrients to lakes. In La Niña conditions with stronger freshets, higher runoff, and high nutrient inputs, more positive ecological indicator species (Arcellacea) are present in lakes, indicating lower levels of ecological stress. In El Niño conditions, smaller freshets contribute less runoff and result in lower nutrient inputs to lakes and rivers. In these conditions, fewer positive ecological indicator species are present.

Migratory fish, such as salmon and trout, are highly responsive to freshets. In low flows present at the end of freshets, fish are more likely to ascend streams (move upstream). During high flows at the peak of a freshet, fish are more likely to descend streams.

Biogeochemical Impacts

Freshets are often associated with high levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in streams and rivers. During base flows, water entering streams comes from deep in the soil where carbon contents are lower due to microbial digestion. During a freshet, water is more likely to run overland, where it dissolves the abundant, less degraded carbon present in the uppermost soil layers before entering streams. High dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels lead to an increase in the net primary productivity of the stream by enhancing microbial growth.

History

The 1997 Red River Valley Flood was the result of an exceptionally large freshet fed by large snow accumulations which melted due to rapidly warming temperatures, producing large volumes of meltwater which inundated the frozen ground. At the peak of the flood, the Red River reached a depth of 54 feet (16.46 meters) and a maximum discharge of 140,000 cubic feet per second (3,964 cubic meters per second). This event has been referred to as “the flood of the century” in the areas impacted.

The Fraser River in British Columbia experiences yearly freshets fed by snowmelt in the spring and early summer. The largest freshet ever experienced in the Fraser River occurred in 1894 and resulted in an estimated peak discharge of 17,000 cubic meters per second (600,349 cubic feet per second) and a peak height of 11.75 meters (38.55 feet) at Hope, BC. However, due to the low population this flood had a minor impact compared to the second largest flood in 1948, which had a peak discharge of 15,200 cubic meters per second (536,783 cubic feet per second) and a peak height of 10.97 meters (36 feet) at Hope, BC. The 1948 flood caused extensive damage in the lower Fraser Valley and cost 20 million dollars at the time.

In 1972, the Susquehanna River which flows into Chesapeake Bay experienced a considerably large freshet due to Tropical Storm Agnes, resulting in flooding and increased sedimentation in Chesapeake Bay. At the peak of the flood on June 24, 1972, the instantaneous peak flow was greater than 32,000 cubic meters per second (1,130,069 cubic feet per second), and at the mouth of the river, the concentration of suspended solids was greater than 10,000 milligrams per liter.

Reflective Essay

Critiquing articles

For my article evaluation, I chose the article Phragmites, however, I later changed my article selection to Freshet when writing the final article. Overall, the most important factors that I found needed to be addressed when critiquing or editing an article were: accessibility to the reader (is it understandable?), content gaps, neutrality, and reliability of sources. Freshet, the article I chose for the final assignment, was poorly cited and difficult to follow (although the tone was kept neutral and unbiased). Although this article covered a lot in the lead section, it was still lacking on more advanced topics concerning freshets, such as their impact on ecology, notable freshets throughout history, and more advanced hydrological concepts. After conducting further research on freshets and brainstorming topics related to freshets (and to this course), I decided to add three main sections to the pre-existing Wikipedia article in order to give a more in-depth overview of freshets. On top of adding these sections, I made sure to add plenty of reliable sources to increase the overall quality and reliability of the article on Wikipedia.

Summary of Contributions

In total, I added three new sections to Freshet and edited one sentence in the lead section. These sections are: causes - this section describes the meteorological and hydrological triggers of freshet events; ecology - this section describes the impact of freshets on ecosystems and populations of certain species; and history - this section goes over some notable freshets that occurred throughout history. The sentence I edited in the lead section was very confusing and could have been misleading to a Wikipedia reader. I broke this sentence down and explained in plain language how the magnitude of a freshet depends on the depth of the snowpack and the rate at which melting temperatures are reached.

Peer Review

I received four peer reviews for this assignment. Ideas brought up in the peer reviews that I tried to address included: adding more information about the relation between freshets and meteorology, the order in which I addressed topics, and the structure of my sections (writing in paragraphs instead of jot points). Overall, the peer reviews were very helpful and allowed me to identify and fix weaknesses in my writing to ensure that my Wikipedia contributions would be understandable and informative to the general public.

Feedback

I did not receive any feedback from the original authors of Freshet or other Wikipedia community members.

Wikipedia Generally

Writing for Wikipedia was a unique experience that, as a university science student, I found invaluable. Through this experience I learned how to communicate scientific information to the general public, instead of to a scientific audience. Being able to communicate information about earth systems, climate change and the environment is an extremely important step in raising the level of public awareness and engaging the global community in taking action to prevent further environmental damage. Freshets are a hydrological phenomenon that I’ve found most people are unaware of. However, freshets are an extremely important part of hydrological regimes all over the world. As climate change progresses, temperatures rise, and snowpacks dwindle, freshets, and the water they bring to the landscape, are slowly disappearing. This could have significant impacts on hydrological and ecological systems. By educating the public about freshets, especially those who live in nival regimes, people can develop a better understanding of how and why these processes are changing around them.

Peer Review

Left a peer review on Nramberg's talk page. Article: Climate Change Feedback.

Peer Review:

"Hi!

I’m specifically reviewing the section titled “Chemical Weathering” here.

This section is well written and goes over the feedback loops in a lot of detail. I like how, even though this concerns the topic of climate change (which is contentious and hard to write about), it was kept very neutral and factual and no conclusions were drawn. It is obvious that a lot of research went into writing this section, however, only one source is cited. Consider adding more primary sources as well as review articles and secondary sources (since Wikipedia likes these). Additional sources will also help back up your statements and make things appear more neutral and unbiased.

As far as the structure of this section, I like how it was split into negative and positive feedback loops - maybe create subheadings for each of the feedback loops.

There are references to earlier sections in the Wikipedia article (“as mentioned earlier”) that may not be necessary or fit the typical format of a Wikipedia article. These phrases could be removed or replaced with “In the carbon cycle…” or “Carbon cycle feedbacks dictate that…” (or whatever you think works best).

A diagram would really help with the visualization of these feedback loops! It would help to support the text descriptions better and help readers that might be new to climate feedbacks.

Overall, great job!"

Left a peer review on Camillegiuliano's talk page. Article: Paleoendemism.

Peer Review:

"Hi!

The changes you’ve made to Paleoendemism look great so far! The “Causes” and “Etymology” sections are particularly well written and well cited. The Scorpion of Montecristo example could be worked into the “Paleoendemism on islands” section of the article. Definitely expand on the conservation efforts section, that seems very relevant and would fit with the article. Also, consider addressing non-human/ anthropogenic climate change-related causes of paleoendemism.

Again, fantastic job so far!"

Finalizing a Topic/Finding Sources

I've chosen to switch my chosen topic from Allogenic Succession to Freshet.

Potential sources:

Editing an Article and Adding a Citation

The article I've chosen to edit is: Freshet

The original text prior to editing was:

"Freshets occur with generally diminishing strength and duration depending upon the snowpacks having large accumulations and then the local average rates of warming temperatures; late spring melts allowing faster flooding from the relatively longer days and higher solar angle against more southerly latitudes and elevations reaching average melting temperatures sooner where earlier and generally lesser seasonal snow piles melt more gradually spread over a longer melt period."

The text after editing and adding a citation is:

"Freshets can occur with differing strength and duration depending upon the depth of the snowpack and the local average rates of warming temperatures. Deeper snowpacks which melt quickly can result in more severe flooding. Late spring melts allow for faster flooding; this is because the relatively longer days and higher solar angle allow for average melting temperatures to be reached quickly, causing snow to melt rapidly. Snowpacks at higher altitudes and in mountainous areas remain cold and tend to melt over a longer period of time and thus do not contribute to major flooding."

The citation I added was from a charity organization called Alberta WaterPortal Society. They work to educate the public about water management in Alberta. The article I chose to reference is well-cited and gives a general overview of freshets which was relevant to the section of the Wikipedia article I edited.

Article Selection

Allogenic succession

This article was the article that I chose to assign myself. It is very sparse, and lists only 3 references. It consists mainly of a basic definition of allogenic succession as well as a point-form list of examples.

Potential ways that I could expand this article include:

• Elaborating on the definition of allogenic succession (and the history of the term)
• Providing further background into climate change driven allogenic succession
• Distinguishing primary and secondary allogenic succession
• Distinguishing allogenic from autogenic succession (often, both autogenic and allogenic factors exist during succession but one type predominates)
• Further explaining notable examples (Permian-Triassic disturbance, Krakatoa)
• Discussing allogenic succession in plant communities
• Do allogenic factors kickstart succession events which then perpetuate themselves autogenically?

Useful citations for allogenic succession

Other potential stub-class articles

• Freshet
• Old Field (ecology)
• Paleophycology
• Astrochronology
• Autogenic succession
• Megaflora

Article Evaluation

I've chosen to evaluate the Wikipedia article on the genus Phragmites, a genus of tall perennial wetland grasses that can be invasive and damage ecosystems. (Article title: Phragmites)

Evaluating Content

The article is supposed to be on the entire genus of Phragmites. Although it initially mentions 4 species, it goes on to only talk about Phragmites australis. Thus, the article title could be revised to Phragmites australis.

The article only addresses two possible ways of getting rid of Phragmites although there are many other possible ways of managing it. This could become a stand-alone section where management techniques are discussed with subheadings for each one.

There is a section called “Natural Enemies” which is very short and out of place, containing information which does not pertain to the natural enemies of Phragmites but instead discusses shoreline erosion. This section exclusively discusses the Louisiana population and no other populations. The inclusion of examples of competitive relationships that various Phragmites populations have with other species would help build on this section.

The article briefly mentions propagation by horizontal runners but fails to go in depth on how Phragmites spreads. There should be a more extensive discussion which talks about rhizomes and more about seeds as well.

Evaluating Tone

This article is very unbiased and presents multiple points of view. While the invasive status of Phragmites and its destructive potential are discussed, this is balanced by noting important wildlife populations sustained by Phragmites and discussing its use by humans both as a building material and as a water treatment system.

Evaluating Sources

There was an article by Saltonstall, 2002 which had a link that did not work and came up as “Page Not Found”. A link to the Encyclopedia of Life said the the page did not exist. A couple of citations of scientific articles do not have links to online databases despite being published recently. There are plenty of scientific journal articles, books and government websites used but there is still use of news articles and websites which could be biased or incorrect. One news article refers to Phragmites as a “super weed” which may be misleading. Another website, the link to which no longer worked, was called “Stop Invasive Species - Phragmites” and was likely biased, only considering the negative, invasive characteristics of Phragmites. There are 2 “citation needed” notes in the article.

Checking the Talk page

The article is part of the WikiProject Plants as well as being part of the WikiProject Psychoactive and Recreational Drugs (apparently the roots contain DMT).

The authors interestingly brought up my argument that Phragmites should be moved to Phragmites australis since that makes up the bulk of the article.

Despite not being discussed in the article, the talk page includes information on Phragmites as a psychoactive drug. This information could constitute a new section in the future.

Other small suggestions on article improvements are made such as adding a pronunciation guide and referring to Phragmites as exotic instead of invasive.