User:Ctran24/sandbox

Article Assignment #1

1 Feb 2016 - Article Assignment #1

Changes in Diamond Lake (Oregon) article:

Added: In January 2016, Oregon revealed their plan to release up to 25,000 fish-eating tiger trout into the lake after the appearance of a single tui chub in an effort to prevent it from, once again, harming the lake. The tui chub found in October was 4 years old which means that it was not there for the 2006 elimination. Scientist are unsure of the origins of the single tui chub. (3 new sentences, 2 refs, link to tiger trout)

Checked for possible plagiarism. Everything seems to be properly referenced and cited.

Not shown: Link to Lake Creek.

References added:

"It's Trout vs. Chub in Oregon Lake Smackdown". Discovery. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.

"Invasive fish in Diamond Lake sparks new eradication effort".Statesman Journal. USA Today. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2016.

Article Assignment #2

1 March 2016 - Article Assignment #2

Added information in the conservation subtopic:

A study published in December 2015 reports that competition with the barred owl may also be a major contributor to the decline of spotted owls.

Source: Dugger, Katie (10 December 2015). "The effects of habitat, climate, and Barred Owls on long-term demography of Northern Spotted Owls". The Condor.doi:10.1650  Retrieved29 February 2016.

Biologist Lowell Diller and Green Diamond Resource Co. are currently collaborating in an experiment sanctioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that is working to protect the spotted owl by killing its competitor, the barred owl. Diller began his work in 2009 by removing populations of barred owls in designated areas. His studies found that in the absence of barred owls, the population of spotted owls did not decline and were able to bounce back.

Source: Arnold, Catherine (29 Feb 2016). "Invasive Species: California Biologists Are Killing Invasive Barred Owls To Help Spotted Owls". Retrieved 29 Feb 2016 – via Nature World News.

Additionally added an external link to the Green Diamond Resource Co.

Searched for plagiarism. I thought there was some but it seems it was just one big chunk of information into the next that was cited all together. Everything seems to be properly referenced.

I thought this would be an important contribution since it's talking about current conservation efforts. Also that one sentence on the barred owls is mainly there to emphasize the relationship between them and the spotted owls since it was a recent study that published findings on it.

Article Assignment #3

30 March 2016 - Article Assignment #3

Added information to population decline subtopic (development was being discussed to some extent in this subtopic which is my reasoning for the placement):

A study on B. terrestris had results that suggests that use of neonicotinoid pesticides can affect how well bumblebees are able to forage and pollinate. Bee colonies that had been affected by the pesticide released more foragers and collected more pollen than bees who had not been dosed with neonicotinoid. Although the bees affected by the pesticide were able to collect more pollen, they took a longer amount of time doing so.

Sources:

Stanley, Dara (14 March 2016). "Chronic exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide alters the interactions between bumblebees and wild plants". Functional Ecology. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12644. Retrieved 30 March 2016 Hazen, Shelley (15 March 2016). "Pesticides Damage Bumblebees’ Pollinating Skills — And That Spells Trouble For Our Food". Inquistr. Retrieved 30 March 2016.

Added a link to the subgenus page in the introductory/general information section.

This is a very well kept page so everything is, or at least seems to be, properly cited and referenced. It was also the reason why there wasn't much chance to add in any significant page links. I will say though that some of the citations are hard to follow so it is a bit difficult to tell what info goes with what source. I did search some parts of the page and results came up for wikipedia and other minor sites.

I thought this would be an important contribution to add information from the study since it was so recent (published March 14, 2016) and sheds more light on the damaging effects of pesticide use on bees. Especially considering bees play such an important part in our food source, it would be good to know information. Generally, just talking how human/anthroprogenic disturbance is harming the bee population and development which is affecting society.

Article Assignment #4

25 April 2016 - Article Assignment #4

Added information to breeding subtopic in green tree frog page:

In southern Florida, the Cuban tree frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) is an invasive species that has a similar call to the green tree frog in regards to timing and pitch. A study found that their calls compete acoustically with each other due to their similarity which limits communication space. In order to compete with the Cuban tree frog, green tree frogs modified their call to be shorter, louder, and more frequent so that potential mates have better chances of detecting their call.^[2] [3]

Sources (these are different from the usual citations due to being done from the edit source tab but I will change them if you think it's necessary to go by the usual format):

1. Bates, Mary. "Invasive Species Compete With Native Species For Room To Be Heard." PLOS Ecology Community. 25 Apr. 2016.
2. Jump up^ Tennessen, Jennifer B., Susan E. Parks, Travis P. Tennessen, and Tracy Langkilde. "Raising a Racket: Invasive Species Compete Acoustically with Native Treefrogs." Animal Behaviour 114 (2016): 53-61.

Added a link to the Cuban tree frog and invasive species wiki pages.

The page, I will admit, definitely doesn't look as good as I thought it would be. The person who started, or added the majority of the info on this page, seemed to be fond us using direct quotes. But they put in the citations very frequently so everything is, or at least seems to be, properly cited and referenced. So no plagiarism as far as I can see.

So, you know that I originally was going to edit and contribute to the cuban tree frog page, but after reading the article more in depth, I decided that this information was better suited for the green tree frog page. I think how they modified their call could be considered to be almost, or pretty much, an ecosystem response to an invasive species, the Cuban tree frog. The change in their behavior definitely says something about that. The article did mention that there were some down sides to a native species modifying their call in regards to breeding as well, but I didn't add that in. I just really wanted to touch on the main point that they were modifying their call in order to make their call more distinct among the other calls that usually sound similar to their original/natural call.