Category: Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

Blog Post 2 – Sources of Scientific Information

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Blog Post 2

  1. The ecological source that I have chosen is a scholarly article that details the benefits of plant biodiversity to various ecosystems.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1046/j.1365-2745.1998.00306.x

  1. The type of classification that this article would fall under is an academic peer-reviewed review article.
  1. This classification can be concluded as the author of the article, J.P. Grime, is of the Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, suggesting he is an expert on the subject of plant biodiversity and ecology, as explored in the article. Under the acknowledgement section in the article, the author thanks reviewers for their constructive commentary on earlier drafts of the paper, which suggests it was peer-reviewed. Also, under the acknowledgement section, the Natural Environment Research Council’s research was referenced as a source in part of the article, suggesting that the paper was a review and not a research article. Furthermore, there are no sections in the article discussing methods or results for research within the paper. All this information suggests that the classification for such an article is indeed an academic peer-reviewed article. 

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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a) One of the sources that I am going to use is Petersons Field Guide to Western Birds

 

b) This peer-reviewed academic material, as Roger Peterson is a distinguished academic and an expert in his field.

  • The book includes in text citations.
  • Includes a bibliography (although in the introduction of the book instead of the appendix)
  • Peter Alden et al, reviewed the text

Has the characteristic of being written by an expert in the field- Roger Peterson is one of the world most celebrated naturalists. His first field guide as published at the age of 23 and has received more than two dozen honorary degrees, as well as the presidential medal of freedom.

Peterson, R., DiGiorgio, M., & Peterson, R. Peterson field guide to birds of Western North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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The source I will examine is my field guide to wild North American mushrooms.

Miller O. K., & Miller H. H. (2006) A Falcon Guide: North American Mushrooms –  A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. Kearney, NE: Morris Book Publishing LLC.

It is classified as “peer- reviewed academic review material.”

This is because

a) Dr. Orson K. Miller Jr. is an expert in the field

Dr. Orson Miller is a Professor Emeritus of Botany and Curator of Fungi from Virginia Tech, written 150 scientific papers, discovered and authored 1o5 new species and genera new to science, was president of the Mycology Society of America and has received many prestigious awards in the field (Miller & Miller,

b) in-text citations are present

c) a bibliography is present

d) the publication was reviewed by at least one referee, including Dr. Cathy Cripps, Dr. Walter Sundberg, Dr. Steve Stephenson and Marilyn Shaw

e) there is no field or lab study present, meaning this is review material

Blog Post 2: Sources of scientific information

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Shannon Myles

January 22nd, 2020

 

A) The source of ecological information that was used is an article published in the scientific journal Aquatic Ecology. The journal publishes various peer-reviewed papers in the field of ecology in all types of aquatic environments. The Aquatic Ecology journal has been running since 1968 and has published 52 volumes since. Its publisher, Springer Netherlands describes the journal has “a multidisciplinary journal relating to processes and structures at different organizational levels.”

The specific journal article that was chosen for the assignment was: “The use of historical environmental monitoring data to test predictions on cross-scale ecological responses to alterations in river flows” (Collof et al. 2018). A paper that looked at data previously collected by hundreds of previous studies in the area to achieve a conclusion. By using the data already at hand, the scientists evaluated the impact of river flow modification to the ecosystem.

Citation: Colloff, M.J., Overton, I.C., Henderson, B.L. et al. Aquat Ecol (2018) 52: 133. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1007/s10452-018-9650-y

Link: https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.tru.ca/article/10.1007/s10452-018-9650-y

 

B) The paper is an academic, peer-reviewed research article.

 

C) The academic basis of Collof’s paper is obvious as he and all of his co-writers are experts in the field. A list of everyone that worked on the paper’s affiliations is available. Per example, the author, Matthew J. Collof is a member of the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University and CSIRO Land and Water in Canberra Australia. A list of all the in-text citations is provided in the references section of the article. All the references are themselves, academic papers. The Acknowledgments section of the research mentions that the paper has been reviewed by an anonymous reviewer. The citation goes like such: “We thank […] and an anonymous reviewer for their practical and constructive reviews of the manuscript.” (Collof et al. 2018). Finally, what distinguishes this paper research article from a review material is its precise methods and results. The paper describes how it proceeded to gather information on its subject and then shows the exact results collected. Even if the study used previously collected data from previous studies, it had a goal different than any of those researches. Collof and his team used specific methods that are outlined in the paper to evaluate their own research question based on data scientifically gathered.

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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a) The source that I have chosen is an article entitled: Progress in wetland restoration ecology. https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(00)01959-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534700019595%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

b) This is a peer-reviewed academic review paper.

c) This is a review paper, as it does not contain a methods and results section like a research paper would, but it contains citations, a bibliography (see link for the paper), has been written by an expert in the field (Joy Zedler, and American ecologist) and has been reviewed by at least one referee before it was published (as Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal: https://www.cell.com/peer-review).

Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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The source I have chosen is a review article in the peer reviewed Scientific Journale: “Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B” titled “The niche, biogeography and species” by “Dr. John Wiens”:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2011.0059

This review article is about how the ecological concepts of niches relate to the field of biogeography. The author also describes how patterns in biogeography are related to species niches. Niches are the combination of biotic and abiotic conditions that allows individual species to live in different areas or zones.

Of the four categories of informations sources, I believe that it belongs to “academic peer-reviewed review material”. This article is published in a peer reviewed, scientific journal and the author has stated in the abstract that the paper is a review article specifically. The paper also does not contain a methods or Results section.

Post 2 – Sources of Scientific Information

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  1. “Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity to mismatch in seasonal camouflage” – M.Zimova, L.Scott Mills, P.M Lukacs, M.S Mitchell. 2014. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2014.0029
  2. This is academic, peer-reviewed, research material.
  3. This is an academic paper as it was written by experts in the field of wildlife and biology, it includes in-text citations, and contains a bibliography as well.  This is peer-reviewed material as all published works in this particular journal (Royal Society Publishing) must be peer-reviewed before publishing.  Finally, this is research material as there is a type of methods section, as well as a results section.

Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

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Blog Post 2: Sources of Scientific Information

Your second post will concern sources of scientific information. Find one source of ecological information. It can be online, from the library, or from a book on your shelf. Based on what you have learned in the “How to evaluate sources of scientific information tutorial”, create a post in which you a) say what the source is (and/or link to it), b) classify it into one of the four types of information discussed in the tutorial, and c) provide documentation to support your classification.

 

  1. “Land Use and Avian Species Diversity Along an Urban Gradient”-Robert B. Blair , 1996

 

  1. academic peer reviewed research material

 

  1. The source is written by an expert in the field as the author is professionals in the field and it contains in-text citations and a bibliography. Also there is a mention in acknowledgment section in the source therefore this paper is academic peer reviewed article. Also the research contains methods and results of an experiment held in the project, therefore it is an academic peer reviewed research material.

Sources of Scientific Information

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For this assignment I chose two sources to discriminate among different sources of information. The main tool I used was our online tutorial flow chart and associated readings from Module 1.

A) Book off my Shelf

Title: The New B.C. Roadside Naturalist A Guide to Nature along B.C. Highways by Richard & Sydney Cannings

B) classify it into one of the four types of information discussed in the tutorial

Non-academic material

C) provide documentation to support your classification

There are no in-text citations and it does not contain a bibliography though is was written by an expert in the field.

 

A) Textbook on my desk

Title: Freedman, B., Hutchings, J., Gwynne, D., Smol, J., Suffling, R., Turkington, R., Walker, R. & Bazely, D. (2015). Ecology: A Canadian Context. 2nd edition. Toronto, ON: Nelson Education.

B) classify it into one of the four types of information discussed in the tutorial

Academic peer-reviewed review material

C) provide documentation to support your classification

Ecology: A Canadian Context was written by experts in the field, has in-text citations and references. In the acknowledgements section it thanks colleagues for their review efforts. It does not have a methods and results section which means it is not research material.