Writing in Biology

For Biome 2 I found that the biome that was most suitable to fit this graph was temperate and in particular temperate Evergreen Forest. The graph illustrates little variation in precipitation and temperature. There is also the absence of sub-freezing and drought periods which makes it even more suitable to be predicted as a temperate evergreen forest biome. There are no drought periods because in the graph one could see that the temperature line is always above the precipitation line and never drops staying consistent. There are no sub-freezing points because the temperature never drops below zero or even below 18℃. In January, it has a temperature of 18℃ and the highest temperature reaching to about 22℃ in May and October. The annual precipitation is 691 mm which is way lower than biome 1 and this could predict that not much variation and abundant amounts of precipitation is present in this biome. As depicted in the illustration, precipitation is 60 mm in April, July, August, and September and the lowest reaching 58 mm in January and December.  In a temperate evergreen the average temperature ranges from 10-25℃ and in the graph its 17-21℃. In a temperate evergreen the precipitation average is about 45-75 mm. In the graph, we could see an average of 55-60 mm. After analyzing, it could be concluded that the temperature and precipitations fall relatively close to the data presented in the graph. Of the nine biomes known it could be said that this is the best suited one.

Ernst Mayr defined a species as, “species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.” With this in mind we know that all three species are able to interbreed. However, they are not necessarily reproductively isolated from other such groups. These three species are able to mate and findings have shown that eastern Canis latrans have been found to more likely kill a dog than breed with it and their species continue to increase. Canis lupus populations found in the Great Lakes have recovered, and Canis lupus are the worst enemy of the Canis latrans. When these two-distinct species are interbreeding there is the creation of variation and mixing of genes. This is also known as a requirement for evolution. As mentioned in the article, “Gene flow continues in all directions, keeping things mixed up, and leading to continual variation over their range, with no discrete boundaries.” I believe that these three organisms are indeed separate species, however, they share a variety of similar characteristics that make them closely related. When these characteristics mix and interbreeding occurs it creates a viable and fertile offspring that might be able to catch their pray faster and make them stronger. As supported by the article, we could see that over time it could be possible that evolution would lead to a Canis latrans so specialized for eastern forests that they would be considered a unique species.  But this would require a variety of things like cutting off gene flow with nonhybrid animals resulting in a variety of types of Canis latrans that almost never interbreed.

    Both the Knapp paper and the Leppakoski paper begin with with an abstract. This tends to be true with nearly all scientific papers. The abstract is an overview of all of the sections of the report, giving the reader information quickly and allowing them to decide if they want to read the entire paper. Both papers then continue to the introduction section, where the background of the report is introduced. After this however, they begin to differ. The Leppakoski paper jumps immediately into results. The results section does not have an overarching header, but instead begins right after the introduction. The results are split into a few main categories, some of which are broken down further. The results are followed by a few paragraphs of discussion and conclusion, and the paper ends with acknowledgements and references.

In temperate grasslands, the dominant type of vegetation are grasses. Temperate Grasslands are a key focus for agricultural and pastoral development. Grasses have to grow more roots than stems in order to obtain enough water and be able to grow. This biomes soil is so rich and as a result it enhances fertility which leads grasslands soil to be a great fit for agricultural development. Since they possess the feature of being suitable for agriculture it has resulting in grasslands, the most human-influenced biome of the nine knowns. Some of the threats temperate grasslands face is overgrazing by livestock and plowing. These threats are results of its key characteristic of having rich nutrient soil. Trees don't make it in grasslands because it’s too dry and they need way more water compared to grasses. They also can’t cope with water stress over long periods of time. However, with some grasslands one can find trees. In addition, disturbances like fires and grazing by herbivores like bison prevent the establishment of trees as well.  As a result, grasses hold a dominance of the temperate grassland biome. 

Structure of Scientific Literature

Similarities:

    Sections: Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References

    These two articles contain these sections within the literature.

    In addition the abstract sections are a summary on the background of the topic and are short and concise. Followed by the introduction which gives a more in depth writing on the background of the topic and slides into the matter of the task at hand. The last paragraph of introduction in the articles contains the what they are trying to convey and based off of what piece of information

Differences:

    Sections: Materials/ Methods, Results.

    The literature of origin matters does include the methods section which is critical as I read from the assignment due soon that it is used so that other individuals can replicate it to see if they can get the same results as the original. This is used to validate the information and see what differences there were and why. This would then lead to the results section. In this there is a clear section on the results the author reached with the methods explained, it is hard to know the results if there is not a clear section explaining what the results were in comparison to the original ideas.

Systems modeling in public health with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals is also important to increase efficiency, improve surveillance of areas where special attention is necessary, and allocation and conservation of resources. For example, scenarios can be run through systems simulation which allow one to see the trends regarding usage of resources, such as fuel and crops, as well as monitor production of those resources. This data can be used to predict yields and costs of the resource, and to decide where it is best to allocate it. Modeling can also be used to identify areas where interventions may be needed to prevent future loss and devastation. This again allows one to further model the introduction of relevant policies and survey how they effect a broad variety of sectors. For instance, if a new or dormant disease becomes active and is spreading, public health officials can begin to instate protocols to prevent the risk of spread based on the modeling system’s output. In this scenario, the modeling system could also be used to predict economic effects of an epidemic, which helps business persons prepare for potential economic declines. Financial investment strategies can also be explored through this type of modeling, in order properly allocate funds where they are needed to achieve the SDGs. Areas of low standards of living and sparse resources could require an economic boost so that they can grow and develop sustainable practices of living. The many interwoven cause and effect relationships of the SDGs and civilization make an integrative and comprehensive system imperative to examine the results of critical political, social, environmental and economic decisions that aim to change the world.

Ch. 3 – Fundamental of Scientific Writing Part 1: Style
It is important to write with the reader in mind. You have already formulated your hypothesis, performed all the necessary experiments and steps, now it is time to focus on who is going to be reading your writing and what is the most important piece of information you would like to convey to your audience. We need to write clearly. For instance, I liked how the first paragraph of this chapter mentions that we need to take into account how the reader is going to interpret our writing. If we were trying to appeal to a feeling or evoke some kind of emotional response from our reader then we would use fancy, and flowy language. However, in scientific communication, that is unecessary and instead it would make more sense to use precise, clear language that is easy to understand and is correctly worded. There was a list of words that should be omitted entirely that I didn’t think were a problem before, such as: actually, basically, essentially, very, really, etc (pg 26).
At first, it seemed strange to me that the goal of scientific writing is to make our writing as short and clear as possible. I always thought that there was some type of positive correlation between using more words, longer sentences and a more academic and “smarter sounding” scientific piece of writing. But, that is not the case! Something else I found interesting was how human genes are in all caps and italics and human proteins are in all caps but not in italics. Mouse genes and proteins are also the same way except that only the first letter is capitalized. It is important to establish importance in a sentence as well. Depending on where a certain phrase is placed and what punctuation is used, it can be viewed as something negative or as something positive. Old information is placed at the beginning of a paragraph and new information that needs more emphasis, is placed at the end of a sentence. I think that this grammatical rule is often forgetten but as scientific writers we need to try our best to place the verb right after the subject and not include a lot of information in the middle. When we write our methods introduction, we should not use the first person, however, use of the first person is okay to do in other sections. Last but not least, remember to use past tense for observations, unpublished results, and specific interpretations and use present tense for general rules, accepted facts and established knowledge (pg 24).

Shubin is credited with having discovered what is often referred to as a missing link in evolution. He discovered Tiktaalik, a species that represents the transition from water to land. Tiktaalik is of special interest because it has features of both tetrapods and fish. Shubin states that “Tiktaalik’s message is so straightforward even preschoolers can see it. For our purposes, there is an even more profound take on Tiktaalik. This fish doesn’t just tell us about fish; it also contains a piece of us” This fish was the first one discovered that has its head free from the shoulder, as in humans. This trait can be explained by the loss of several small bones in a fish similar to Tiktaalik. Furthermore, Tiktaalik has tetrapod featured like a flat head and neck but also fish features such as scales and fins. It is clearly a transitional fossil that shows when fish started to venture out onto land.

The novel Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin explores the origins of humanity. Shubin makes it clear from the start of the novel that humans have changed over time through evolution and the fossil record has secrets of our past hidden inside of it. Even though only a miniscule fraction of organisms are fossilized fossils can be used to glimpse into the past and study our ancestors. Shubin focuses on how similar humans are to other animals, both morphologically and genetically. For example he highlights that all animals have heads, even fish, a trait that can be adequately explained through common descent. It is by far more likely that having a head is a shared trait, than it is that it independently arose in numerous recent lineages. The main theme of the book, highlighting similarities humans share with other animals. Darwin used the same method in On the Origin of Species, but here Shubin can built off of Darwin’s foundation by using modern discoveries.

Sharks are amazingly well adapted to their ever-changing marine environment.  They possess several adaptations that help them swim without expending too much energy, and enable them to maneuver quickly and with agility. The bodies of all sharks taper to points at both the snout and the tail, increasing their hydrodynamics as they chase after prey.  They also have a type of scale known as a denticle, which controls the flow of water over the skin’s surface leading to a reduction in drag.  Most importantly, sharks are known for possessing a skeleton entirely composed of cartilage.  Unlike most vertebrates, they do not rely on their internal skeleton to provide them with firm sites for muscle attachment.  Instead sharks have a thick skin composed of a meshwork of strong and flexible collagen fibers.  This woven layer acts as a receptacle for swimming muscles to attach directly to their armor-like skin.  From a mechanical perspective, having muscle directly attached to an external skeleton is a very efficient arrangement, resulting in very little waste of muscular energy.  In general, sharks use low energy and mechanically complicated movement, which allows for continued existence as an apex predator.