Sophia Dibbini October 30, 2016
Stanford University. "New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 October 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161025215703.htm>.
I read the article “New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover” by ScienceDaily and I found it was very interesting. In this article, scientists from Stanford University discovered a new way of calculating the biodiversity of an ecosystem: by trees. Historically, conservationists have protected species by placing large swaths of land into preserves and parks. However, only 13 percent of the world's land area is located in protected natural land. Most of the planet's species live in ecological gray areas, located within a gradient where one end is pristine wilderness, the other a parking lot. Protecting species in these gray areas is a challenge because there's no way to measure biodiversity without time-consuming field surveys. With no way to estimate biodiversity, making decisions for protecting habitat and species is difficult. Researchers at Stanford, through extensive observations, mapping and analysis, have now generated a method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover. The results can be used by policymakers to help protect biodiversity and endangered species. "We've created a framework for counting something previously uncountable," said Chase D. Mendenhall, a postdoctoral research fellow in biology at Stanford. Over a series of three- to six-month field sessions across 10 years, Mendenhall's team of 15 researchers hiked across the hilly tropical agricultural landscape of Coto Brus, an area in Costa Rica. The scientists then plotted their plant and animal observations on detailed, fine-scale maps from Google Earth aerial photographs. When they analyzed the results, the importance of tree cover became clear. For four of the six species groups (plants, non-flying mammals, bats and birds), scientists saw a significant increase in the number of species with increasing tree cover visible on Google Earth maps. The analysis showed adding a single tree to pasture could boost, for example, the species number of bird species from near zero to 80. After this initial sharp increase, adding trees continues to add new species, but more gradually. As the stand of trees approaches 100 percent cover within the area of interest, endangered and at-risk species like wildcats and deep forest birds begin to appear. There are two general ways to value biodiversity: the total number of species and the number of at-risk or rare species. This study shows that planting single trees or regenerating large tracts of forest increases both values of biodiversity, both rely on adding more trees to the landscape. This article was very interesting and informative, and I enjoyed reading it.
This article is very relevant to today’s society because it takes a basic principle, biodiversity, and makes the readers look at it from another viewpoint. Scientists have studied biodiversity for a number of years, and having a new method to study it, using trees, can change ecology. These scientists are impacting communities because they are giving people a way to measure biodiversity, so they can place their own value on it. This model produced in the study can impact governments around the globe, like influencing policymaking. Along with securing clean water and removing carbon from the atmosphere, the ability of trees to support life could be included in planning decisions. "We know that planting trees along rivers protects water and sucks up atmospheric carbon. Now we're also showing how many species you can add in the process," Mendenhall said. Overall, this finding can greatly impact communities around the world and can further studies in all branches of science.
This article provided much information on this new study, and harbored many good and bad aspects. First, I liked how the author of the article gave a very descriptive background of the investigation the scientists at Stanford did to discover this new process, the details helped the reader understand the case thoroughly and made it more interesting in general. Also, a strength of this article was talking about how this discovery will lead to many new labs and tests, making it easier for people in communities and people working in governments. However, a weakness of this article is that the author did not clearly state how the scientists used these tree cover maps and on-the-ground observations to measure biodiversity, they simply stated that it could and gave a long description of the investigation. The article would have been better is the author discussed the process more in-depth. Even though this article had its weaknesses, it was very interesting and informative and I look forward to hearing about this new found process in the future.
I choose to comment on Sophia’s review of the article “New Method of Estimating Biodiversity Based on Tree Cover.” Overall, Sophia did a great job reviewing this article. I liked how she started the article off by explaining the title. She said that scientists have learned how to use tries to estimate biodiversity. Also, I liked how she explained how not being able to estimate biodiversity can be bad. For example, without this information, it is hard to make decisions about what species and areas should be protected. Finally, I liked how Sophia quoted experts from the article directly into her review. In her review she included the quote that Mendenhall said, "We know that planting trees along rivers protects water and sucks up atmospheric carbon. Now we're also showing how many species you can add in the process." This gives her review credibility.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Sophia did a great job reviewing the article, there were some areas she could have improved. For example, I wish her connection to society today had been more helpful. Although she does connect the current event to society today, she fails to mention how it really affects individuals in society. Also, I wish Sophia had talked more about the negative sides of this new method of estimating biodiversity. This would have made her review seem more credible and less bias.
This article and its review were extremely interesting to me. I learned that before this new-found method of estimating biodiversity, we had no real effective way to do so. This is very surprising to me, as with all our advances in technology I assumed we would be able to accurately estimate biodiversity. I also enjoyed learning how this new method could help preservation of endangered species. Overall, the article and its review were very well-written.
Sophia Anagnostakis 11/6/16
DeleteAP Biology Current event 10
Stanford University. "New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, 25 October 2016. .
I chose to read Sophia’s review of the article, “New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover,” because I took AP environmental science last year and I am interested in the topic of biodiversity. Sophia begins by explaining old methods to calculate biodiversity which were difficult and time consuming. She then talks about the research done at Stanford which brought light to a new way to calculate biodiversity. “For four of the six species groups (plants, non-flying mammals, bats and birds), scientists saw a significant increase in the number of species with increasing tree cover visible on Google Earth maps.” Sophia also states that the scientists found that with the addition of one tree there could be a boost from about 0 to 80 bird species.
Sophia did a very good job clearly explaining the data from the article so that it was easy for a regular reader to understand the new discovery. She also did a good job explaining the background of calculating biodiversity which is important since most normal people don’t know how biodiversity is calculated or why it is important to be able to calculate it. I think that Sophia could have improved her review by explaining how this new discovery will help policy making because it is unclear to me. She also could have improved the review by telling us if more trees will be planted now to increase biodiversity in some places or what will really be done with this new information to better our ecosystem. Overall I learned a lot from Sophia’s review and I thought that the information was very interesting. I know how important biodiversity is to our ecosystem from taking AP environmental studies so I don’t think this really changed my view about anything but I definitely learned some new information from reading it.
Sophia Anagnostakis 11/6/16
DeleteAP Biology Current event 10
Stanford University. "New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover." ScienceDaily.
ScienceDaily, 25 October 2016. .
I chose to read Sophia’s review of the article, “New method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover,” because I took AP environmental science last year and I am interested in the topic of biodiversity. Sophia begins by explaining old methods to calculate biodiversity which were difficult and time consuming. She then talks about the research done at Stanford which brought light to a new way to calculate biodiversity. “For four of the six species groups (plants, non-flying mammals, bats and birds), scientists saw a significant increase in the number of species with increasing tree cover visible on Google Earth maps.” Sophia also states that the scientists found that with the addition of one tree there could be a boost from about 0 to 80 bird species.
Sophia did a very good job clearly explaining the data from the article so that it was easy for a regular reader to understand the new discovery. She also did a good job explaining the background of calculating biodiversity which is important since most normal people don’t know how biodiversity is calculated or why it is important to be able to calculate it. I think that Sophia could have improved her review by explaining how this new discovery will help policy making because it is unclear to me. She also could have improved the review by telling us if more trees will be planted now to increase biodiversity in some places or what will really be done with this new information to better our ecosystem. Overall I learned a lot from Sophia’s review and I thought that the information was very interesting. I know how important biodiversity is to our ecosystem from taking AP environmental studies so I don’t think this really changed my view about anything but I definitely learned some new information from reading it.