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Reading this paper, I see the importance of using multivariate trait analyses when using CWM models. I recall the authors mentioning some of the results from this paper on pg. 174, when they mention the dominant trees had low wood density while most other species of trees had a higher density. If you are using this data for preservation efforts or any other practical use, using a univariate analyses would be difficult. Looking at multiple traits these this scenario would be necessary. We also can see in the paper that there is significantly different results when univariate analyses are compared to that of multivariate ,which gives us a better understanding of the complexity of trait-environment relationships. One thing I did question is the selection of traits for this model. Which traits are important? Why are certain traits selected? Here they selected three related traits but what about other factors such as abiotic ones (mentioned by a classmate!).

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On the Clarity and Organization of This Paper

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On the Clarity and Organization of This Paper

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What struck me while I read this paper was the use of the questions laid out in the introduction of the article to organize the paper. Not only did these questions help the reader understand what the main objectives of the article were, but it allows for readers to easily follow what is going to be discussed in certain paragraphs. I bring this up because I remember reading a few papers for this course a while ago that lacked this, and it certainly did feel more difficult to track the main idea behind the article.

-Christopher Ortega

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The article states that species with trait values nearest to the CWM values have higher fitness because they are present in higher abundance. I do not know if it was in an assigned article, or in a chapter from our text, but I remember reading that just because the trait can be frequently found does not mean that it is ideal or the best trait for higher fitness. In this experiment, the CWM value for three different traits were tested in regards to water and light availability. I feel that this study would have had stronger results if more abiotic factors were taken into consideration. For example, I feel that the results for the WD trait could have been screwed by outside factors that were not considered. These possibilities were considered in the discussion section but I wish there was further elaboration just to clear my confusion on the of measuring traits to the CWM values. In the end, the CWM optimality hypothesis was not supported by every result that was obtained.

- Ciania

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Is there one "optimal" adaptive solution to environmental problems?

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Is there one "optimal" adaptive solution to environmental problems?

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The CWM-optimality hypothesis states that the CWM traits represent "optimal" phenotypes. The authors test this hypothesis by comparing species distribution models to CWM values for tropical tree species in Puerto Rico. They found that a majority of trees were more likely to be found in locations where their trait values were closer to the CWM.

One problem with this hypothesis is that it assumes there is a single optimal solution to every environment. But what if plant traits are distributed multimodally within a community so that there are several "optimal" phenotype? While environmental factors do filter species based on their traits, there is no reason to assume that each environment has one optimal phenotype.

-George

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What I likes about this article is that they literally do everything that was talked about from chapter 5, or at least everything. What I liked that they did was that in their experiment they made sure to scale the trait values. Overall I liked how careful they were with this experiment. They made sure they didn’t just focus on traits form dominant species but made sure to randomize the study so that they could find the overall dominant trait. I feel like other studies we’ve read haven’t been as thorough as study for this experiment was.

-Jacquelyn

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This article definitely goes hand in hand with chapter five of the book. I really liked that this article reiterated the importance of considering environmental gradients as they strongly influence CWM trait values. Also, hydraulic limitation was briefly mentioned in this article, however I had to look it up to better understand it. In simpler terms, hydraulic limitation is when the path from the roots to the leaf is pretty long and as a result, there is a decrease in the flow rate of water and this then leads to less photosynthesis occuring, hence short stature develops. I thought I would mention this in case anyone else was wondering the same.

~Kiranjit Kaur

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I think that the CWM model/method seems to work really well in this paper. Showing 70% of the species agreeing with the CWM prediction tells me its pretty accurate. I was interested how many of the species that they called "renegade" species were plants commonly found in arid environments or wetland environments. They're traits allow them to survive in more hostile environments but they aren't restricted to them.

Harry Calianese

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The article points out that the Community-Weighted Mean (CWM) method, which looks at how species' traits relate to the environment, gives us only a partial view of the whole ecological story. There are many other factors like differences within species, small-scale habitat variations, and changes over time that also affect the diversity of species in an area. So, while CWM is helpful, it's like looking at just a si gel part of a puzzle , and we need to consider all the pieces to understand the whole picture. another things that I thought that could be a significant point of improvement could be to provide a more detailed explanation of the importance and implications of intraspecific trait variation, which the article acknowledges and briefly talks about it but does not fully explore.

- elizabeth bavaresco

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In terms of the data, specifically, graphs e-h, species with non-significant slopes which were represented as grey without black circles were difficult to identify. The findings indicate that the main forces behind functional diversity across environmental gradients are fine-scale niche partitioning and broad-scale environmental filtering, with local functional variation limits having a substantial impact on multivariate phenotypes.

~ Shania

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The results of the article seem pretty standard for the WCM method where there's a good majority of the data (70%) aligned with the predicted hypothesis and a small but fairly significant portion (25%) of the data disproving the hypothesis (due to trait variation). This shows how WCM as a method only shows one piece of the puzzle of the interaction between an environment and the traits of species that reside in it.

- Adrian Natera

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I appreciate how the research reintegrates what we've talked about all semester: how large-scale environmental issues impact the functional features of forest ecosystems. However, the text alludes to habitat differences at a finer scale; I'm not sure what they mean by "fine-scale." It is also said that temporal changes play a significant role in sustaining local functional diversity, which does not necessarily suit the CWM optimization theory; this in particular does not make sense to me; either I misunderstood, or they are incorrect.

-Rosmery

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Although we could argue how accurately the CWM- hypothesis is presented in the article (whether the 70% is good enough or just part of the whole picture since there is never one optimal trait). One aspect of the paper I do appreciate is the thoroughness within randomizing the test and looking to see if there is a relationship between train values and occurrence patterns in the data that didn't match the CWM regression line. However, I would have also appreciated a bit more background as this article went straight to the facts, leaving some things for us to investigate ourselves on the side.

-Zuzanna

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In the article, We obtained a relationship significantly similar to CWM linked between abiotic factors and the diversity gradient locally. The relationship between abundance and deviation from the CWM "was only significant for one trait at the Puerto Rico site, potentially reflecting site or regional differences in the degree to which univariate CWM values reflect optimal phenotypes" . Different traits affect local sites strongly but CWM may not be reliable because it does not capture diversity and trait values within a community which can affect resilience. The point of CWM and its reliability to the article is rather unclear to me. -Julia K.

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Elaborates on similar concept mentioned in Chapter 5

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Elaborates on similar concept mentioned in Chapter 5

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Chapter five of the community ecology book mainly discussed trait and environment relationships and how one could quantify the strength of these relationships. The Muscarella article touches exactly on this notion with their own study of trees in Puerto Rico but they pose the question of whether CWM traits in these areas are best for the fitness and optimality of a certain species. I think this delves onto whether there is a correlation or causation effect of whether a trait is is best suited for an environment which Chapter 5 touched and in this article they were able to muster up conclusive results.

-Laura Romelus

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A diverse tree of skills (traits) but not enough points (energy economics) to unlock (evolve) all of them for a particular level (environment)

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The trait trade-off in organism reminds me of a particular video game aspect

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The trait trade-off in organism reminds me of a particular video game aspect

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When reading articles, I enjoy finding something analogous or similar to something I enjoy. The article stated that there is physiological trade-offs depending on resource availability and as an avid video game enjoyer, I thought about the skill tree system common in role-playing games where there is a web of skills that can be unlocked with points to be able to progress your gameplay. In nature, traits (skills) are needed to survive in a certain environment (level) and the species evolve (unlock) these traits based on the resource availability (pre-requisites for unlocking) and energy economics (skill points). In terms of the CWM, I see it as the RECOMMENDED combination of skills to survive in a level, but there are other combinations that can override the recommended combination. This is was just a fun way to add more life to the article while reading it.

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I find that since the basis of this study was to test the CWM-optimal hypothesis, it seems logical to test what is actually seen against this model.

I don't understand why they tested against what is randomly predicted rather than what is predicted from the CWM-optimal hypothesis. It is is also not clear what their random model is, so we can't get much information on that.

Gracia B.

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One thing I found myself longing for while reading this paper was a higher focus on the traits of the vertebrates and birds. There is a brief mention of the traits in the methods section, but the paper feels more like a focus on filters and how they interact with jungle canopies.

-Christopher Ortega

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While very wordy, I felt the paper delivered its message when correlating forest tree height and the link to the increased amount of biodiversity there is with an increased height. I wonder if there are any downfalls to this feature such as increased amount of species in one area leading to insufficient amount in another.

Laura Romelus

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Considering a lot of issues facing corals is the temperature of the water, it is interesting that some of the most prominent survivors are slow growing . I don't believe we have ever approached conservation with an attitude that "slow growth" is good growth. It's built into our society that speed is a trait most animals should have to survive. I wonder if we manipulated coral growth in labs, how they produce traits between fast and slow growth. If colder temperature is additionally something that was favored by surviving corals, I wonder if we must treat wild corals with ice baths? - Aleyna

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The article says that there is a basic mechanism which enables a coral to become a “mass extinction survivor” and

which may be maintained for tens of millions of years and that it's already evidenced in some of the world’s largest coral reef systems. Since we know that the K-T and Anthropocene extinctions may be explained by the combined effect of

eutrophication, warming and acidification, all factors of the modern ocean, I was wondering what specific courses of action must be taken in order to combat these issues? While we may be facing a mass extinction event and it's great to hear that there may be survivors of the coral kind, the article also ends on a very grim note, mentioning that Primates are also increasingly becoming threatened with extinction... we do not possess analogous “survival” traits or have a track record of mass extinction survival, so what exactly can we do if the mass extinction does end up reaching Primates?

- Ari

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While reading this paper I kept coming back to the correlation between height and biodiversity, but in different kinds of ecosystems. The paper mentions that no previous studies have been done on the exact topic, but further research should definitely be done as the data and conclusion can't exactly be true without at least looking at other ecosystems and comparing - even different regions can make a huge difference on the biodiversity. I was reminded of the sinkhole in China which was discovered to house an entire forest, making me wonder how these various ecosystems would compare? Does it make a difference if the ground level is different, and how so?

- Ari

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Giant sinkhole with a forest inside found in China

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A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom.

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One thing that I found interesting was the similarities between corals that survived the K-T and modern corals that are considered to be stable based on fossil records. The study suggests that current corals such as tropical coral reefs do not posses these survival traits and are typically threatened-extinct on the IUCN red list. Corals that possesed traits similar to these during the K-T extinction were several impacted. This study then concludes that scleratininan corals have "mass extinction survival traits". They also mention that primates have no record of such traits, or of surviving an extinction. Upon further study, I saw that while the general consensus is that primates began 55 mya, there are newer studies that suggest that primates could have existed before the K-T mass extinction. The main issue agreed upon in these newer studies is that unlike corals, mammals, especially primates have poor fossil records around the K-T extinction event. I found that interesting and definitely want to look further into it.

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One emphasized factor about corals in the article was their ability for their skeleton to hold up for many centuries upon centuries to be used for future analytic data and I feel as if that trait is mainly acknowledged with human, dinosaur, or plant fossils. It's interesting to see marine life being utilized in this way.

Laura Romelus

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This was a very interesting article. I enjoyed the way each extinction was broken down and explained at the start of the article. It was noted that the results presented in figure 4 may not be fully accurate as all the data was collected form other sources and not by the researchers themselves. It makes me wonder why the researchers chose to exclude certain variables such as the geographical distribution parameters.

I agree with Gracia that there should have been more information on the current extinction happening. In the end of the paper, it is stated that by comparing the coral response to both extinction events, future coral adaptations to changing environmental factors can be predicted. I feel like this could have been further elaborated to make the claim stronger.

I don't really understand the hypothesis presented at the end that states coral evolved before the K-T period are better equipped to survive the current extinction period. Could it be because the conditions during the Cretaceous period were drastically different to the conditions now? Whether that be abiotic or biotic factors.

Ciania

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I have to say that I did not really enjoy reading this paper for the same reasons that Abrar and Zuzana had mentioned. Everything was making sense until I reached the discussion portion. It was recognized that other studies of the same topic were done and did not match the results of this study. I wonder if the other studies took different factors and variables into consideration that this study did not. If that is the case, I feel that this research can be conducted again in more depth. I would be interested in reading more about this topic if the research was focused in a specific region and a larger range of variables were assessed.

I thought it was interesting to read that species richness does not always equal functional diversity. I wish the authors would've elaborated more on this and provided detailed reasons behind their fluctuating relationship. There were too many statements being made and not enough explanations behind them.

Ciania

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This article discusses the significant traits associated with survival in coral reefs status post K-T mass extinction. It was mentioned in the article that coral reefs are currently only present in about 0.2% of the ocean area which to me seems like a relatively low number. Evidently, this percentage may be at a lower level at this time because many corals are near-extinction. However, I would like to know how much ocean area coral reefs occupied prior to extinction rates reaching an all time high. This would allow me to compare both values and better visualize the drastic change.

~Kiranjit Kaur

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The article "Forest canopy height co-determines taxonomic and functional richness, but not functional dispersion of mammals and birds globally" explores the impact of forest canopy height on the diversity of terrestrial vertebrates, specifically mammals and birds, at a global and regional scale.

I found the article's exploration of the relationship between forest canopy height and terrestrial vertebrate diversity to be particularly intriguing. It delves into a relatively understudied aspect of biodiversity, shedding light on the significance of canopy height in shaping the diversity of mammals and birds. This understanding has far-reaching implications for conservation and ecosystem management. However, I would be keen to delve deeper into the underlying mechanisms through which forest canopy height exerts its influence on species richness and functional diversity. Moreover, it would be valuable to see further research that translates these findings into practical applications for conservation and habitat management.

The article "The Effects of Vertical Vegetation Structure on the Use of Tree Plantations by Bats in a Biodiversity Hotspot in Costa Rica" looks at how the height and structure of trees influence where bats live and how many different types of bats you can find in an area. Bats are important for things like pollinating flowers and spreading seeds, so understanding how trees affect them can help with conservation. It's like a more detailed look at a specific group of animals in a specific place compared to the article you read before. Which similarly looks at how tall trees in forests affect the diversity of animals like birds and mammals.

-Elizabeth Bavaresco

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the article provides a comprehensive examination of the challenges faced by scleractinian corals during two major extinction events, shedding light on their adaptability and vulnerability over time. The use of the fossil record and the IUCN Red List for assessing extinction risk offers a holistic perspective on the topic. Additionally, the article's focus on specific coral traits and how they have evolved or changed over time is valuable for understanding coral resilience.

However, there are some aspects I would like to learn more about. The article mentions shifts in various coral traits but doesn't delve deeply into the mechanisms behind these changes or their specific implications for coral survival. A more detailed discussion of the driving factors and potential conservation strategies for protecting corals in the face of ongoing environmental challenges would enhance the article's practical relevance. Additionally, the article could benefit from a clearer structure and more explicit connections between the discussed extinction events and the observed coral traits.

- Elizabeth Bavaresco

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I think what was done about this experiment is that they were able to see that the height of forest canopy is what they found that was consistent in being an important predictor for vertebrate species richness. What I feel wasn’t done right or what i’m at least confused about is the fact that there looking at the canopy heights from different areas that don’t even have the same environmental conditions so how can they say it’s the most important? Maybe i’m just not fully grasping what’s going on but that’s what i’m confused about.

-Jacquelyn Hernandez

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How would manipulating other environmental factors affect the trend between the canopy height and taxonomic/functional diversity?

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How would manipulating other environmental factors affect the trend between the canopy height and taxonomic/functional diversity?

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The article states that canopy height plays a role in the species richness and functional diversity of an area by providing protection/shelter to various species from anthropogenic disturbances. It's also shown that canopy height's relation to taxonomic and functional diversity is equally correlated with other key factors such as temperature and NPP. But if one of these said parameters (such as temperature & NPP) were to be manipulated or changed somehow, what would the trend between canopy height and species diversity (both taxonomic and functional) look like? Would we still expect to see increased diversity with taller canopies?

- Adrian N.

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Why don't more K-T corals exist in the coral reef population we see today?

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Why don't more K-T corals exist in the coral reef population we see today?

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It's no secret that coral reefs are in danger of facing extinction due to anthropogenic activities with the exception of a small handful of unique species that possess traits that allow it to be somewhat resistant to the changing conditions as a result of climate change. However, that begs the question, if these K-T  corals are so resistant to anthropogenic changes, why don't we see more of them? One would answer this simply by the fact that the industrial revolution happened only a few hundred years ago, before when there wasn't a need for such traits seen in the K-T coral species. However, that doesn't change how a good portion of the corals we commonly see today could still benefit from possessing at least some of these traits pre-industrial revolution (ex: deep residing corals). So, at least some of them should possess these traits. According to the article however, they don't seem to be all that common.

- Adrian N.

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When I started reading this at first I was confused how they would be able to look at how certain traits caused the extinction through looking at the fossils but then I started thinking about like the rings on a stump so I assume it’s like that I think. But again with every paper I read there is never 100% certainty of this getting everything especially with us not knowing most of the species in the ocean we don’t know all the factors that make affect it. There’s always going to be something unknown.

jacquelyn hernandez

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Primates are a relatively new species that hasn't developed extinction surviving characteristics

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Primates are a relatively new species that hasn't developed extinction surviving characteristics

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It was a very interesting point made at the end of the article about how primates (including homo sapiens) do not have analogous "survival" traits for extinction events like other species have. Primates are a relatively new species so our Order hasn't faced any major threat at the level of the K-T extinction event. It serves as a reminder that if there were a major threat to humanity, life on earth would continue, especially those that have the necessary traits to survive. We cannot afford the risk of an extinction event because our species hasn't been tested to that point.

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 I felt that the Coral trait paper was easier to understand than the other paper

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 I felt that the Coral trait paper was easier to understand than the other paper

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Using the K-T boundary event and the Anthropocene mass extinction events as focus points, the researchers were able to convey their investigation of the influence of biological factors on coral survival and the community structure on coral reefs is such a clear and effective manner. They were able to use geographic dispersion to reveal the most important factor of coral survival, possibly as a result of heterogeneity. In addition, they discovered that the K-T extinction had an influence on colonial, symbiotic, and shallow Scleractinian species, which developed in higher numbers following the extinction. Projecting that the majority of coral genera that survived the K-T event and the high temperatures were those with stronger tolerance to disease or heat stress.

~ Shania

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-Rosmery

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The paper discusses certain traits that allowed the survival of corals during mass extinction events such as living in deep waters, having a wide geographical distribution, not being symbiotic, forming solitary or small organisms, etc. But that happened many years ago, what can we predict for the future? Could corals survive the global environmental problems we are going through?

-Rosmery

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The two properties of functional diversity are species richness and species dispersion. They were highly correlated in all different diverse environment, where mammals had dispersion in many regions of the continent but functionally overdispersal birds clustered in tropics and subtropics. mean canopy height (htMean) and NPP were the two variables most closely associated with the species richness of mammals and birds. Species richness was more clustered in tropics for both mammals and birds because forest canopy can preserve ecological disturbances. Species richness is very important to determine species however it does not capture whole characteristics that can differ. Based on the reading we can conclude that species function is positively correlated to the species richness.- Julia

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I'm not sure about you guys but I wasn't completely sure what zooxanthellae were and decided to look up some sources.

Corals have a symbiotic relationship with the algae which provides 90% of the nutritional requirements and give also give the coral its color, hence the term "bleaching" refers to the loss of this algae.

I found this study which found that a coral's ability to associate with a range of zooxanthella types has a casual link with thermal tolerance. If anyone would like to read more the article is provided. -Zuzanna

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In the paper the author mentioned" liliput effect" which is a phenomenon where we observe a decrease in a body size in species that have survived the extinction. The K-T species that survived allows the formation of a small colony niche. There is a correlation between a liliput effect and mass extinction in corrals and animals. The smaller vertebrates and invertebrates had survived the mass extinction whereas the large animals had suffered the most. The effects of KT and Anthropocene extinction are different on corals; the study shows that the coral reefs that evolved at or before KT have a higher chance of survival in modern extinction than the ones that evolved after. - Julia

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Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and Species Richness

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Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and Species Richness

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It makes sense why NPP and SR in mammals have a positive relation. But when they showed the relation in different regions, some regions had very high relative importance, especially regions with the least vegetation (Desert, arctic). Even though every area showed a very high positive relationship, the areas are very different. Also, The authors didn't discuss much about the regional graph

in the discussion. Overall, too much variable, and too little discussion.

~Abrar

(Zuzana posted her thoughts as I was writing this. Mine is very similar to hers.)

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Although I appreciate the data collected and the figures which make it easier to understand their results, especially the maps of figure 3 and 4 which show the different regions along with the positive and negative effects of other predictors of species richness, standardized functional richness, and functional dispersion, I feel as though the paper ineffectively displayed and explained a large pool of data just to state that other studies had mixed results as well, and that the mixed results they collected support the importance of preserving the old forests which provide refugia.

Looking at what Kiranjit said about the larger canopies decreasing species richness, I would have to say I partially agree with her statement. If such data was collected I think species richness would vary depending on the types of species and more specifically the ecosystem/region studied. At the top of my head when I think of places with these larger canopies, I can agree to expect lower plant species richness in North America with the Redwood forests, where the trees are extremely tall and leave little light for those underneath, but I feel that if we looked at rainforests where we have species such as vines and lianas that climb the tall canopy trees, we could find higher species richness. These of course aren't all the species but there most definitely have to be variation within ecosystems on a global scale. Going along with the paper however, climate would most definitely be a factor to be looked at closely. What do you guys think?

-Zuzanna

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Lilliput effect was observed in last mass extinction. Maybe limited resource after the extinction was the reason for that. The evolutionary changes those corals went through during K-T made them survive. It has been 66 myr, why there is still corals that didn't evolve after K-T?

~Abrar

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In this article, the main focus was on the species richness of birds and mammals as a result of taller forest canopies. However, one question that I have is that would the results still illustrate higher biodiversity if plants were examined instead of mammals? The way that I think about it is that taller canopies must be blocking the sunlight from smaller plants and flowers who are present underneath the tall canopies. Those smaller plant species also need sunlight to survive, however in this case, the taller canopies would be receiving most of the direct sunlight. Evidently, plants and flowers cannot reach such a tall height, therefore they would begin to wither and die out from lack of sunlight which I believe would actually be decreasing the species richness.

~Kiranjit Kaur

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Why was the current extinction not detailed?

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Why was the current extinction not detailed?

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The way the article is formatted and how the information is presented makes it slightly confusing. I am not sure I understood the graphs, maybe like 65%.

The KT extinction was so well described, but it would have been great to see how factors in the current extinction mentioned affect coral reefs, especially since they make reference of it as influencing KT survival traits. It would be interesting to see what is happening in the current mass extinction that is selecting for a decrease in KT-survival traits, as how current environmental factors differ from KT in order to lead to the decline in KT-survival traits.

- Gracia B.

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Functional richness and dispersion are two cited component of functional diversity. Given that, functional richness is roughly the volume of trait space in a given community, and functional dispersion is the distribution of species along that trait space.

My confusion stems from the fact that I cannot tell if this is one trait we're looking at when we say "trait space" or multiple traits. It may be that the one trait being analyzed is forest canopy height, but based on the graph and discussion, it does not seem so.

Can one trait have high functional richness and dispersion? I seems so to me. If not, what is the basis for understanding their maps?

- Gracia B.

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Global Ecology and Biogeography - 2020 - Feng - Forest canopy height co‐determines taxonomic and functional richness  but

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I found this paper to be very interesting as it experimentally proves a lot of things and shows evidence for diverse seeding recovering more native plant diversity at larger scales. Biodiversity conservation is a huge issue especially now, and more research and experiments should be done in order to learn about these ecological processes as well as the possible implications for ecosystem restoration and conservation. The text does mention the lack of on site experimentation and I also wonder, how would this experiment differ if animal subjects were used instead? It would certainly be a much larger project but the implications for use in scaling
of biodiversity, restoration actions, responses to global change, and even invasive species management are significant, if not crucial.

- Arifa

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After watching the IBM modeling presentation yesterday, I felt that maybe it related to the article in some way? But the math and explanation, still came across very dense to me. I'm apprehensive of the role of species pools and determining a species pool. I know they isolated and looked at grassland areas, but doesn't more belong in a species pool? Do the organisms in the environment not count towards productions of species pools?
-Aleyna

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I did not understand the experimental set up. There was a lot of manipulating that was done to the 2 plots of land. The land was essentially destroyed and then rebuilt, and there was even assistance in seed dispersal methods. I do not understand how this could give accurate results. This may be an issue of me not fully understanding the different ways that species pool sizes are measured because as it was stated in the article, there typically isn't physical manipulation of testing sites when conducting these experiments.

- Ciania

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"~empirical evidence for how species pool size alters diversity across scales remains limited..."

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"~empirical evidence for how species pool size alters diversity across scales remains limited..."

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I like how the text accepts that no studies have been carried out on-site, meaning that they do not go and sample those species to take real-time data. So, how do we know how for sure species pool size alters diversity?

-Rosmery

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This study actually helped make more sense out of the concept of species pool than the textbook did. The text never really seemed to cement the importance of properly defined species pool and its role, but the article did a better job.
The problem that I faced while reading was that because I couldn't understand what c and z were, I did not fully grasp the full detailed meaning of the study.

Also, the methods seemed foreign to me. I felt counterintuitive to the aim, but that might just be because I'm not familiar with this aspect of ecology experimental analysis.

- Gracia B.

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I enjoyed that Catano et. al 's paper was an experimental article which helps guide the audience as to what exactly was being tested vs an overarching more broad conceptual paper. It also does lead to direct results. The methods used the concept of slope and intercept which are more familiar concepts in terms in comparison to high level math (Calculus) which made the paper easier to follow. I found that the results were aligned to what many would think of species pools. Yes, species pool richness becomes stronger with an increasing amount of spatial scale and there is little changes in diversity at a small spatial scale and the paper proved this.

-Laura Romelus

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effect of small population on big population can be underestimated creating ecological instability in restoration- can cause bad impact.

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effect of small population on big population can be underestimated creating ecological instability in restoration- can cause bad impact.

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What I understood from the article is that small species community increases its diversity and effects on the environment however they can affect the larger pool differently. For example smaller population that is genetically different from a larger population when introduced can cause a genetic drift, It can cause more competition between the species and their reproducibility - it refers to stochasticity. (fluctuation in birth and death rates). However when we look at a single small community and compare it to a large community effects may be underestimated ( we may not be sure), it can affect a community strongly or not at all, so ecologists need to be careful about restoring its environment. " These scale-dependent effects suggest that studies evaluating species pools at a single, small scale may underestimate their effects, thereby contributing to uncertainty about the importance of regional processes for community assembly and their consequences for ecological restoration.".

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How are the findings within the article relevant to current conservation/restoration efforts? Do you think the same/similar findings would apply to fauna or fungi? Do you think there were any limitations to the methods the experiment?
-Zuzanna

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This study shows us that a change in the species pool can affect the species richness across multiple spatial scales using the species area relationship. It's interesting to see how this study relates to what we were discussing regarding chapter 3, but in terms of conservation. It all still leads to the following questions: How big should a species pool be and how large should the spatial scale be when studying communities? Based on this study, these factors influenced the SAR which raised diversity at larger scales. These variables could be something to consider about when trying to conserve or restore different habitats in a time of severe climate change. -Melanie

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It is mentioned in the article that the site was purposefully burned in order to promote new growth of beneficial plant species. Although, this may have a good impact for some species, wouldn't this be creating a filter for others and in a way limiting species diversity? I know that in this case, the goal is to obtain restoration through the fire but it is evident that only the species who can withstand the fire or regenerate rapidly afterwards would be able to thrive in that environment. This would be mimicking the effects of a wild-fire. With that being said, fires and floods are natural disasters that vastly affect the survival of species as they act as filters. In this article, the detrimental effects of the fire don’t seem to have been considered.

~Kiranjit Kaur

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Migration patterns by birds depicted here show that they can be included in the species pools of the areas they migrate to and from, increasing species richness

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Are species pools more than just a list of species?

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Are species pools more than just a list of species?

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Based on our discussions of class, I came to the understanding that species pools, whether regional, habitat-specific, and potential are just lists of species for each respective category. In this list, they speak of species pools having an affect on community assembly by interactions between the species. My interpretation of this data is that the species pool SIZE is the topic that is being focused on. A larger species pool will increase the species richness and a major reason is dispersal into the area being sampled.

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I find the concept of species pool size influencing species–area relationships during community assembly quite intriguing. The paper suggests that the size of the species pool, which represents the number and composition of species available for colonization, can significantly impact the relationship between species richness and area. This leads to questions about the role of regional species diversity in shaping local communities. How do changes in the size of the species pool affect community composition and diversity? Are there certain ecological processes or mechanisms that are more pronounced when the species pool is larger or smaller?

- Elizabeth B.

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After reading the article I found out I don't understand figure2. They don't talk about much about 'A' in the result section. Smaller pool sizes showed composition-soil moisture relationships all over the place. Large pool size was consistent in the middle around 0.4. This tells me that the sites for all 'small species pools' were very different. That affected spatial variation. I don't understand why these data are relevant and what effect they have on the outcome.

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I think it's interesting how the influence of smaller species pools on the rest of the larger surrounding species pool is underestimated. It's sort of a double edged sword in the sense that they give you accurate data on one smaller region, at the cost of less accurate data on a larger scale, not because of increased variation in the area, but more so the interactions of species of one area with species of another as well as the dispersal effects as a result. This shows that species pools aren't just complex, but accurately  evaluating diversity of an area in general is.

- Adrian Natera

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To determine the boundaries and potential of ecological restoration in terms of biological conservation along with assessing the impact of restoration initiatives would require monitoring at various levels or scales.
~Shania

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Determining the boundaries and potential of ecological restoration as it relates to biodiversity conservation along with assessing the impact of restoration initiatives would require monitoring at various levels or scales.
~Shania

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After reading the way they were conducting the experiment I immediately had to come here and comment, before I forget my thoughts. I understand the need to make all of the seed distributions the same in order to get more accurate results, but also with the way that it’s being done are they actually getting accurate results. I say this because not seed is being distributed evenly or perfectly where they get the correct and perfect nutrients, so how would the information really benefit if it’s not based more on how a seed would be distributed naturally?
-Jacquelyn Hernandez

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Reading this paper made me think of my own childhood growing up in the Bronx and then Spanish Harlem right next to Central Park. A huge part of the reason why I fell in love with nature was due to the park, a huge oasis in this concrete jungle of gray. It was always so striking to me how such a beautiful park could exist, but simply depending on what side you are, East or West, the entire landscape changed. The West side was beautifully lined with trees and plants whereas on the East side you would be risking your life just walking through the park at night. I never had to feel like I was in the city whenever I was in the park, but there was always a part of me thinking go home, this isn't safe. Although Central Park is manmade, it's a huge environmental resource and provides habitats for many animals and plant life, as well as providing human enrichment. As such, we need to protect and encourage these places as much as we can as it may be a huge step in overcoming environmental and overall racism in urban environments.
- Arifa

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This might be a little off topic but reading this article made me think about how I was raised growing up. My parents got married at a very young age and had me and my brother at a very young age as well. And at that we are 11 months apart so it was definitely more of a struggle for them. Overall this article made me think about how hard it is to really be able to live in this country when you aren’t very well off, yes there’s a lot of programs that try to help those who struggle financially but even then it still only helps a little bit and even then that’s only if you are able to qualify for the program. For some programs you need to be “a certain type of poor” in order to qualify. Honestly it kind of reminds me of financial aid, when they ask you to confirm that the information you put is true, and I understand it’s for cautionary reasons but to need to prove that I need the aid is kind of like a slap to the face, as if they’re saying to prove that you’re poor enough to deserve the aid. I believe a lot of changes could be made in this society of care was given to everyone and not trying to separate each other based on how much we make. Yes, we have different attributes but at the end of the day we’re all people.
-Jacquelyn

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I was doing some research on freeze tolerance in regards to the frog paper and saw that alligators can also withstand freezing temperatures. Climate change has caused some areas of the U.S. that normally don't have freezing temperatures to freeze up. Alligators in these regions are actually surprisingly tolerant to this and are able to overcome this filter that would kill many other creatures. Despite not normally being exposed to frigid temps, they are able to put their body into a state of bulmation (kind of like a suspended state) similar to the frogs discussed in the paper. It is through this that many are able to survive these weird temperature changes! -Melanie Cortez

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All I have to say is just.. Why? I understand that they do this in part because the land thaws out quicker than water, so they can start off the spring season ready to go.  I wonder what it will mean for them and the other species they compete with as the effects of climate change become more prevalent.
-Katelyn Marcia

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Frogs Come Alive After Winter Thaw | National Geographic

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Reading this paper made me think of the article that I linked. In this paper, they assessed different sectors of the Brazilian Amazon to measure their vulnerability to climate change. One of the general findings was that poverty and the sociopolitical position of a community were strong enough filters to assess how vulnerable they are to climate change. I wonder what the ties are between their findings and racism in Brazil.

-Katelyn Marcia

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Mapping human vulnerability to climate change in the Brazilian Amazon: The construction of a municipal vulnerability index

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Vulnerability, understood as the propensity to be adversely affected, has attained importance in the context of climate change by helping to understand what makes populations and territories predisposed to its impacts. Conditions of vulnerability may vary depending on the characteristics of each ter…

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What are the implications of the unidentified solute?

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What are the implications of the unidentified solute?

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While reading this paper I noticed that one of the major differences noted between the Alaskan wood frog, Rana sylvatica, and Ohioan cool-temperate population frogs were the presence and absence of an unidentified solute, respectively. The study mentions that it is possible and likely this solute serves a cryo protective role, but further study is needed to determine how much exactly it affects resistance to freezing amongst these frogs. I found it very interesting how researchers can still be learning about new, unprecedented variables in experiments and am curious to know, since it's such a significant difference, whether further research specifically on the unidentified solute will reveal anything specific to this experiment or not.
- Arifa

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I grew up in the South Bronx in a predominantly black and Hispanic community. I was part of a 10-year program that took city kids from low-income communities to camp in the wilderness for 2 weeks at a time every summer. While there, we were provided with environmental science and health classes. We discussed various topics such as climate change and learned about health statistics in urban cities. It was at this camp that I learned about the impacts of racism and classism on one's environment.

While it may be difficult to solve a lot of these systemic issues, I think it would be great to see more government funding in programs such as the one I attended to help educate the youth and provide opportunities and resources that are not always readily available. Making people aware of these issues will lead to more advocacy for change.

As environmental issues become more and more political, we are really starting to see the lack of care coming from upper-class individuals. I wonder how these issues will change once addressed at a legislative level.
- Ciania

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This article was interesting to me because it mentioned a lot of topics that I have been learning in my organismic biology class. That background knowledge that I have made it easier for me to understand this paper. What I found interesting was the mention of the allometric scaling relationship between the Alaskan and Ohioan frogs. Allometric scaling compares the size of different parts of the body to the whole body. I know that the size of an organism is an important factor to consider when talking about thermoregulation. I would have liked for the researchers to further discuss how allometric scaling played a role and look at the evolutions of the frog to see if they could have changed in size to adapt to their environments.

- Ciania

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While reading the article, I found the examples in which they showed how human activity, such as the construction of impervious surfaces, could affect gene flow were interesting. It left me curious to see potential studies investigating areas such as vacant lots and their effects on gene flow.
-Christopher Ortega

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One key factor that the "Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Systemic Racism" paper brings up is urbanization and how it has changed the dynamic between people and their environments. It is mentioned that many papers focus on indicator values such as neighborhood wealth that obviously contribute to ecological decay but the writers of this paper draw attention to social inequity and racism. How does one distinguish which factor has a greater affect in negatively affecting an environment and also distinguish when a community is upholding blatant forms in equality for different groups or just an obscene amount of wealth?

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I would be curious to know if this phenomena happens at a rate faster than evolution in other frog species, and or if this happens in a mirror species which is not frog, and how differently it occurs. - Aleyna

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I know other's commented on it, but I deeply believe this article missed a great point they could make by using New York as an example. New York has been shaped by racism, and everyone who lives here, knows of it. Especially how areas that are constantly getting re-branded by gentrification, and slapped with an expensive label....
I would be interested to know why NYS wasn't made an example of this behavior. - Aleyna

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Learning about redlining was very important to me and I realized though a deep dive, just how impactful it is. The paper does a great job at demonstrating how racism creates communities of plant groups and that older plants tend to reside in white neighborhoods, which forge greater biodiversity. This was truly very stunning to me, as I never realized how important age is to a community, and it makes perfect sense. I really appreciate how I can understand everything the paper talks about.
How can we go about restoring the damages of redlining, does this involve prohibiting certain neighborhoods from cultivating land in a certain manner? - Aleyna

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Overall this is an interesting observation, especially that of the freezing adaptation. However, given current warming trends I wonder how amphibians that pass water more freely through their skin would respond and adapt to the warming temperatures in areas that may exhibit periods of drought or extreme wet and warm climate. Various species have been observed to migrate up in latitude so I wonder if movement to colder areas, or some form of adaptation/ tolerance would be observed.
-Zuzanna

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There is a sentence in this text that caught my attention: "residential segregation." It is the main topic when we talk about the impact of racism on urban ecology. People of low socioeconomic level do not always have access to decent housing, therefore, they are more prone to different diseases caused by different hazards present in homes and neighborhoods. A clear example of this is the presence of lead in old buildings in NYC and NYS. Although there are regulations against the use of this element in paints and pipes. Many old buildings still have traces of lead. Let's keep in mind that they are not luxurious buildings on the Upper West Side so the landlords do not see it as a lucrative business to demolish them. They apply a new coat of paint under the old ones and rent them for an "affordable price" among the low-income community.

Check out this short presentation I prepared in 2020 about lead poisoning in NYC housing.☝️ ☝️ ☝️ ☝️ ☝️

-Rosmery A.

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This article discusses how racial discrimination affects patterns of biodiversity in cities. Does this make racism a "filter"?

Most of the filters discussed in the book have some mechanistic basis in organismal biology and ecology. They directly pertain to species' environmental tolerances, resource requirements, and biotic interactions.

Racism however doesn't directly affect species distribution. Instead, its effects are mediated by other conventional environmental filters.

As an analogy, precipitation is the primary climatic control on the distribution of trees. Forests require more water than grasslands due to various factors that increase evapotranspiration over forests. Thus precipitation is an important "filter" for trees. Precipitation patterns are determined by major atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Latitudinal bands of forest occur at low pressure zones where warm, moist air rises to produce rainfall. This is responsible for tropical forests and boreal forests. Longitudinal bands of forests occur along the eastern coasts of continents, due to western boundary currents that transport warm water from the tropics towards the poles. But even though they have immense influence over earths ecosystems we don't consider atmospheric cells and ocean currents to be "filters".

So, in my opinion, racism should not be considered a "filter", at least not within the framework proposed in our book. Instead we should think about racism in the same way we think about the distribution of solar radiation or the coriolis effect. Racism modifies many important filters but it is not a filter itself.

-GEORGE ELLIOT

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During COVID, the impact of racism was noticed clearly. The article touched on it a bit. Racial and ethnic minority communities, particularly Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations, have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality compared to white populations. This tells us how dangerous filter racism is.

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The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

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The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

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This article truly spoke volumes and raised awareness to an issue that isn't talked about enough. I looked at the problem of uneven distribution of resources from another perspective. One example I can think of is that NYU has made their medical school free of cost to incoming students. But the irony is astonishing. Want to know who gets in? Mostly the students who come from rich families and were blessed with an abundance of educational resources in comparison to the students from low-income families struggling to make ends meet. I can only imagine the students that have to choose between buying incredibly expensive MCAT study books and paying their rent. There are many minority groups in New York City who aren't given the chance but that doesn't mean that those people aren't smart enough to become doctors. It's a clear example of inequality in the sense of a lack of resources. It is not fair that the opportunities such as getting into a medical school free of cost is targeted towards the rich kids who are not the ones who need the free tuition. Seats like those should be going towards minority groups. In fact, they should consider how hard it is for those students who can't afford a lot of textbooks to obtain perfect scores and maintain a 4.0 GPA when better resources are easily accessible to students who come from a wealthy background.
~Kiranjit Kaur

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This article highlighted such an intriguing adaptive mechanism that the Rana sylvatica frog species have developed. This made me think of how humans living at higher elevations tend to have an increased hematocrit level as that is the body's way of adapting to chronically low oxygen level exposure. A lingering question that I have in mind is that: Is there a possible way to train different frog species to develop the hibernation and freeze tolerance adaptation in the same generation, similar to how athletes train at higher altitudes in order for their bodies to get used to hypoxic conditions by increasing blood cell count?
~Kiranjit Kaur

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This physiological mechanism helps these frogs from getting frozen by lowering the freezing point of the frog's bodily fluids. Scientists have widely used this for preserving various organing products. Did scientists find this chemical from the frogs, or did these frogs adapt to synthesize cryoprotectants?

-Abrar

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The first thing i thought about when I was reading this is poot frogs. I know that these conditions is something they’re used to, but I can only imagine the ones that might have died to the prolonged cold temperatures. I did think it was cool though that the frogs were able to change due to the cold they were exposed to. A question I have is that all these different types of frogs adapt the the cold they are used to but what if there was a storm and the temperature dropped even more, would they have time to adapt or would they just die?

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When reading the paper I tried to picture in my mind different New York City's neighborhoods and compare them to the communities and environment that are mentioned also in the article to better understand it. Low-income neighborhoods like East New York are more affected by the low living quality fewer parks and vegetation, you can see more dark streets, noise, and whereas rich neighborhoods like Forest Hills in Queens have more trees, quiet, safety, less industrial factories, you can see more light and less pollution. This pattern of racism related to the environment where people live can be seen in all of America's cities and counties where poor people and minority groups living in low-income areas have less availability to proper healthcare and safety. In conclusion of the article, we can see that racism in society and urban life can behave like a filter for the distribution of wealth for the people within a city creating a division.-Julia

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I found it interesting that some frog species can survive those harsh environments by regulating of their osmotic content within the blood, they can survive up to 2/3 of their body which lowers their freezing point. what I found bizarre is that the species were solidly frozen and after thawing after some time they started to simulate neurotic signals again, whereas mammals would be dead. Most of this article spoke about chemicals and physiological properties of the body during freezing cold however it does not speak much of the behavior during the cold.-julia

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The Role of Human and Government Relations in the Climate Change Problem

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The Role of Human and Government Relations in the Climate Change Problem

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I would say this article does a good job of bringing into light some issues that some may argue aren't mentioned enough when discussing the problem of climate change and potential solutions. More importantly however, I also think this article brings into question the overall effectiveness of collective global government action, the method in which many find would be the key to solving climate change. How can we trust the same institutions responsible for many of the smaller scale human issues we see today to deal with larger scale ones? Do these institutions even see eye-to-eye on the topic at hand? The overarching idea is this, we as a society tend to focus too much on the problem at a macro scale, paying attention to the climate itself, as well as the what would be intuitive causes (fossil fuels, capitalism, etc) while not emphasizing the micro scale (human & government relations) as much. Perhaps one can argue that the human side of the climate change problem is a much larger hurdle than climate change itself and that working on trying to resolving these smaller scale problems may set a path for future success in dealing with the larger scale problems.

- Adrian Natera

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Possible Explanation to the Adaptations of Rana sylvatica

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Possible Explanation to the Adaptations of Rana sylvatica

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According to the article, higher osmolality (i.e higher concentration of solute) in body fluids of makes an organism less susceptible to freezing due to the solute in the blood and tissues lowering its freezing point. I suspect that this adaptation is exclusive to amphibians and other animals that aren't able to grow fur or have any method of maintaining their body temperature. As a result, they have essentially no choice but to either migrate or endure the freezing cold. Though more research/studying would need to be conducted to test this theory.

- Adrian Natera

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I could not help but compare this state that we live in. Manhattan is literally referred to as the "concrete jungle" where there is this form of uniformity and as was suggested the plant species represented are based on those that are pleasing to the eye and provides the most elegance which determines the bird spaces we have present, pigeons. As compared to areas that have a wider diversity of vegetable and reduce sizes of buildings. And it all build down to the social class of the rich vs the poor (those not considered rich).

This comparison can also be viewed from a country perspective.  First world countries are more developed infrastructurally than 3rd world countries. If we are to check the abundance and richness of species diversity 3rd world counties would win hands down.
~Shania

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Are these traits of interest a general adaptation for cold climates or are they specific to frogs? 

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Are these traits of interest a general adaptation for cold climates or are they specific to frogs? 

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The main properties that were discussed in this paper were molecular properties that are shared with many other species in the animal kingdom. They focused on the liver (glycogen, content, richness), muscle (protein, mass, glycogen), and plasma (glucose, urea, osmolality). These properties are shared with other animals such as bears. Bears also tend to hibernate in colder climates except if they freeze, they will be dead unlike frogs that can survive extreme cold. I was wondering that if applied to other animals, would they be able to survive freezing as well or does something within frogs besides these properties, help them survive freezing as well.

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Wealth and industrialism as key influences

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Wealth and industrialism as key influences

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I found wealth and industrial power to be greater driving factors as the direction of a city landscape is driven by the money holders. Additionally, old cities like New York maintain strong hand-prints of early industrial era, and newer cites like phoenix may also be shaped by industrialism, which tends to destroy green spaces and attract workers to areas that are less "green."

I feel that even if race is removed, the patterns observed will not be abolished. looking at homogeneous cities may help determine this.

To cement race as a driving factor, we would have to consider the effects of this filtering in more homogeneous cities like Seoul or Tokyo. but these cities are from collectivist countries compared to the individualistic West.

- Gracia B.

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The continuum of intraspecific characteristic is always super interesting

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The continuum of intraspecific characteristic is always super interesting

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The varying responses to climate based on habitat was really interesting. The same species showing such molecular disparities is fairly common, as humans we are all so diverse and those traits do affect our survival or adaptations to the environment (though to a lesser extent nowadays), but the impact of such differences on survival is always just as astonishing.

My one issue with the paper is that the discussion was largely focused on the difference between the Alaskan and O. frogs, but the results and figure sections were more heavily inclined toward the differences between frozen and unfrozen frog more than the A vs. O frogs. It made it feel like they were intentionally not focusing on those details.

Gracia B.

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Can change of behavior be measured in regards to time? 

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Can change of behavior be measured in regards to time? 

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Although the lack of predators have made the moose exist in a more relaxed state, how long would it take for them to start relying on their sense and instincts if their top predators were to be re-introduced?

-Hillary Andrade

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Berger shows that Moose use Raven sounds as a  warning system. He show that Moose respond to Raven sounds in regions where predators are present but not where they have been recently extirpated.

I wonder if there is similar variation in behavior across time. Specifically, do moose in the same location respond differently to raven sounds depending on the time of year?

I could imagine this could occur if there are times of the year when predator activity increases or decreases greatly. Alternatively, Moose might be more sensitive to raven sounds during times of the year where they are more vulnerable, especially if they have a regular breeding season.

-George

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The article mentioned that when comparing the years of 1977 and 2004, the islands have the same community of plants. Does this include the invasive species that have been introduced? If not, how are they sure that these invasive species aren’t a potential filter that explains the difference in survival rates?

-Hillary Andrade

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Interactive effects of biotic and abiotic filters

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Interactive effects of biotic and abiotic filters

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In the article the authors observed a sharp decrease in mean beak size of G. fortis following an intense drought.

Their explanation is that the drought intensified competition between G. fortis and G. magnirostris.  G. magnirostris were better able to exploit large seeds than G. fortis. This resulted in larger beaked G fortis (who relied more on large seeds) to have higher mortality than smaller beaked G fortis. The result was trait displacement between G. fortis and G. magnirostris.

How can the interactive effects of competitionXdrought be separated from the effects of the drought per se? Do you think the drought would have caused similar evolutionary change in the absence of competition from G. magnirostris?

-George