Current Event #4: “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor”
Isabel Sondey
Lim, Xiaozhi. “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2017,
The article I selected centers around the discovery of a new species of sponges living on rock nodules on the Pacific seafloor. Called Plenaster craigi for the number of stars that form the organism’s backbone, it is the most abundant organism living on nodules as far as scientists know. Craig Smith, an oceanographer at University of Hawaii, conducted two explorations with the goal of collecting the newly-discovered sponges. Led in 2013 and 2015, the expeditions covered ground between a part of the Pacific Ocean spanning from Hawaii to Mexico- a region the size of the US. Over a hundred scientific expeditions have been conducted in this region over the course of the last 40 years. Nodules found in this area contain an array of metals including iron copper, nickel manganese and cobalt and “range in size form golf balls to big potatoes”. In order to classify the new discovery based on genetic and appearance factors, Dr. Lim joined forces with Adrian Glover’s research team at the UK’s Natural History Museum. Dr. Glover, on the sponges, stated, “They’re living in a very food-limited environment. It’s quite remarkable that they can survive.” Despite their ability to defy odds and survive on minimal food supply, these creatures may face danger if nodule mining in the area begins. Deep-sea mining is becoming increasingly attractive to people, which puts the sponges’ habitat at risk of being mined. In the case that deep-sea mining isn’t economically feasible and minerals can’t be extracted from marine ore as some have hypothesized, then the sponges are safe. But if the opposite proves true, and the huge stores of sediments do prove valuable to people, mining would have damaging effects on the organism.
This new finding is of great importance, as it has opened scientists’ eyes to a whole new species that they weren’t even aware existed. A deep-sea biologist, Diva Amon, who embarked on Dr. Smith’s expeditions commented “This is one of the most abundant animals found living on nodules and we didn’t even know it existed.” Deep-sea biological oceanographer Stace Beaulieu of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution states that “This is very exciting because it is not only a new species but a new genus.” Genus is a subgroup ranking above species and below family. In other words the discovery of the new species is equivalent not to the discovery of dogs, but to the discovery of a larger group including wolves, coyotes, and jackals alike. Very little is currently known about the new species; what it eats, how they reproduce, and the extent of the area they inhabit all stand as mysteries to scientists in the present. However, further investigation of the creature in the near future will help us understand more about the creature and its environment.
Overall, I found the article to be well-researched and well-written. The author cited statements made by several reputable scientists in the subject area, including Mark Hannington, marine biologist at Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, Stace Beaulieu, Deep-sea oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic, Ann Vanreusel, marine biologist at Ghent University in Belgium, and Swee-Cheng Lim, sponge taxonomist at the National University of Singapore, who also published a paper on the organism in the journal of Systematics and Biodiversity. The scientists whose research was quoted and discussed came from across the globe. The author included researchers’ comments on all different aspects of the new creature, which allowed the reader to develop a very full understanding of all the research that has been conducted to date. However, not much about the creature is currently known, and the article fails to address research that can be done in the future to answer the lingering questions of the scientists on the creature. The article mentioned how the the regions the organism inhabits, its diet, and its method of reproduction are currently unknown, yet no research plan to develop an understanding of these items is discussed. The author also fails to mention exactly how scientists stumbled upon the sponge. In order to provide the reader with a fuller understanding of the new sponge and the research that is being done on it, the author could have provided some insight into how the creature was discovered, as well as experiments and expeditions that will be conducted in the future to obtain information on the creature that is unknown right now.
Mairead Cain
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
A.P. Biology
5 February 2018
Lim, Xiaozhi. “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2017,
www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/science/sponges-species-pacific-ocean.html?rref=collect on%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=ran&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront.
Isabel did a very nice job with her current event review on the article “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor,” by Xiaozhi Lim. I decided to review her report as the title of the original article is rather intriguing and raised many questions. There are several good techniques she uses throughout the report. One example is how she gives background of the scientists involved in the project. This allows readers a deeper understanding and familiarity with the topic at hand. Another aspect of Isabel’s writing that was done rather well was when she directly quoted the article. This allows readers to fully trust the information relayed as it is from a valid source. Lastly, I appreciated how Isabel fully explained why deep sea mining is dangerous for the sponge species. This information allowed readers to envision the harm deep sea mining will cause to many different types of organisms.
In order to make it that much better, there are several aspects of the report Isabel should have tweaked. I recommend that she explains how, exactly, the discoveries being made will affect the science community and those involved in preserving natural habitats. This would have been beneficial because it would have given readers an insight on the future of the information collected and described in the article. Also, she could have added some of her own opinions concerning the information at hand and maybe even her own ideas on how to educate the world of the research findings. This would have further granted readers an insight about the future of the research findings and even the eventual results from the research.
Isabel’s report was very informative and I learned extensively about how certain species of sponge are at risk from deep sea mining and other disruptive human behavior in the oceans. Before reading the report, I had little knowledge about how sponges are being so deeply and negatively affected by deep sea mining. It is definitely important that this information is relayed across the world so that humans can learn to preserve these natural habitats.
Robby Schetlick
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Ippolito
March 4 2018
Citation: Lim, Xiaozhi. “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2017,
This cycle, Isabel Sondey wrote a comprehensive review on a NY times article “New Species of Sponges found on the Pacific Seafloor.” The first she she does well is organize her article. She chose to do it in chronological order, following the article itself. This is an effective way to accomplish organization and makes for an easier read. The next thing she does well is selectively choose her content. She chooses to focus her summary from the perspective of a sympathetic scientists, which helps advance her narrative and get her points across. The third thing that she does well is incorporate evidence from the text into her article. Quoting various doctors help describe the spong creates as well as validate her points throughout her review.
Several minor improvements could be made to improve Isabel’s review. Her weakest paragraph is her “relevance” paragraph, as her connection to society isn’t relevant to the point she was trying to make in her first paragraph. She can improve this by trying to describe the situation as less of a discovery and more of an ecological ethics problem. Expanding on the idea and taking a strong position for or against activism would serve to have a greater impact on the reader. Another suggestion would be to add a stronger sense of opinion into her writing. She takes a very neutral stance in her review, which isn’t as effective at causing a change in the viewer or challenging their worldview.
I chose this review and article because I believe that bioethical considerations are important when discussing humanity’s future expansion and efforts. Our seeming harmless mining operations could kill off this entire species or Genus that we might not have otherwise known about. This article is an example of a lesson that humanity needs to learn, our actions have important consequences.
Isabella Dibbini
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
March 16, 2018
Lim, Xiaozhi. “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor.” The New
York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2017,
www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/science/sponges-species-pacific-ocean.html?rref=collect on%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=ran&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront.
Isabel wrote an excellent review of the article “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor” by Xiaozhi Lim. She created a great summary of the article and developed strong arguments. Lastly, she did a great job of supporting her ideas with evidence directly from the article, which ultimately made her review interesting and easy to follow. For example, she quotes Dr. Smith’s when she states “This is one of the most abundant animals found living on nodules and we didn’t even know it existed.”
This review is extremely well written, however, there are a few small things that she could change to make it even better. For instance, if Isabel’s wanted to make her review more interesting, she could have done outside research, which would allow her to incorporate additional information. Also, if she added more detail it would make her argument more compelling.
After reading Isabel’s review of the article “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor” by Xiaozhi Lim, I learned how this topic was relevant to our society today. By reading this review I was able to further my knowledge on this topic. Overall, this review was very interesting and shows a great understanding of this article.
Charlie Gay
ReplyDeleteAP Biology
Mr. Ippolito
4/12/18
Current Events 21
Lim, Xiaozhi. "New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Oct. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/science/sponges-species-pacific-ocean.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science%C2%AEion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront
I really enjoyed reading Isabel’s review on the article “New Species of Sponges Found on the Pacific Seafloor.” One thing that she did very well was she included the credentials of the people she was citing information from. For example, she wrote, “Craig Smith, an oceanographer at University of Hawaii, conducted two explorations.” By including “oceanographer at University of Hawaii” she is adding to the credibility of her review because the reader now knows that it is a reliable source. Another thing that Isabel did well is she quoted directly from the article. For example, she quoted “They’re living in a very food-limited environment. It’s quite remarkable that they can survive.” Adding this quote allows the reader to read a quote directly from an expert on the topic illustrates that her review is supported with facts. Lastly, another thing that Isabel did well was she fully explained why deep sea mining is dangerous for the sponge species. This helped the reader gain a greater understanding of the article as a whole.
Although this was a very well written review, there are some aspects that could have been improved. For example, I thought that her first paragraph was too long. She could have broken the paragraph into smaller paragraphs, which would have made it easier to understand. The long paragraph made this review more confusing to read. Another thing that Isabel could have done better is she could have added more of her own opinion into this review. This would have made her review more compelling to read.
I really enjoyed reading this review. I had no idea that there was a discovery of a new species of sponges living on rock nodules on the Pacific seafloor. I wish I had heard about this before reading this article. I chose to comment on this review because like I said before I was not aware of this discovery. The title caught my eye and I immediately wanted to comment of this review. I was amazed to learn that even a topic like this can be very relevant to our society. I definitely recommend that people read this article and review.