Please download this handout on “Textual Recycling,” prepared by Prof. Cary Moskovitz:  Textual recycling_guide.  Don’t worry about the highlighting and footnote instructions on page 2.  I would simply like to use this for a brief discussion on text recycling in the sciences!

Also, SW10 is an anonymous peer review of another student group’s research paper.  Here is the prompt (it’s the same as SW6 but with revised dates): Wr20_Fall11_SW10_anon_peereview Please complete this by Monday, Dec. 5.

Burning fossil fuels releases vast amounts of nitrous oxides, ammonia and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere as well as carbon dioxide. Coastal areas are particularly at risk due to the short lifespan of these chemicals (up to 7 days)- most are deposited on land. In the ocean, the sulphur and nitrogen takes the form of dissociated products of nitric and sulphuric acid. These acids are strong and so dissociate completely in the seawater, lowering its pH. However, the overall process of acidification is more complicated than this as there are many chemicals dissolved in the oceans, each of which effects its own change when these new chemicals are added in. Although the changes in the sea due to nitrogen and sulphur compounds are only a fraction of the amount caused by carbon dioxide, the effects are compounded in coastal areas with 10-50% of the change due to these chemicals.

Reference:

Doney SC, Mahowald N, Lima I, Feely RA, Mackenzie FT, Lamarque J-F & Rasch PJ. Impact of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen and sulphur deposition on ocean acidifiaction and the inorganic carbon system. PNAS; 2011: 104(37): 14580-14585

Please download this handout for today’s class:  Wr20_Fall11_scientific_article_tips

Hopefully this will be a useful resource for MP3!

Also, it was requested that I post an example of a manuscript properly formatted for submission to a journal (but ignore the numbering in the summary):  FWB_revision2_30Jun2010.  Compare this to how the paper appeared when published:  Cooke&Hill 2010

BioScience (2010)

Cheryl A. Logan discusses the causes, effects, possible solution, and awareness of ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is caused by carbon dioxide dissolving into the Earth’s oceans, generating carbonic acid. Over the past 200 years the pH of the ocean has decreased by 0.1 units, a 30% drop. Ocean acidification affects the ability of several species to calcify, which could affect the food chain and indirectly damage the economy. Scientist have looked into geoengineering as a way to palliate the situation, but reducing carbon emissions is the largest way to help.

Logan also looked into the public and government awareness of ocean acidification. While it seems that the public knows little on the subject, no actual research has been done to prove this. However, the government seems to be much more informed and there are several organizations that are working to improve the situation. In general, Logan suggests using social-networking sites, films, the blogoshpere, and other media to increase awareness.

The plan for Monday’s class is to discuss some useful tips and pitfalls to avoid when writing a scientific article (an e-handout will be ready by Monday).  Because this list of tips is rather lengthy and can be overwhelming, I thought we could focus on these guidelines section by section and incorporate some in class writing along the way (e.g., discuss strategies for the intro, then spend 15 minutes drafting/ revising the intro, then move on to the methods, etc.).  We may also go over data analysis and interpretation and some other miscellaneous issues that were brought to my attention during meetings with some of you yesterday.  So, please bring your laptops and outlines or drafts!

The plan for Wednesday’s class is a seminar workshop.  I’d like each group to select one section that they would like feedback on and that is reasonably complete (I realize for most groups this will probably be the intro or methods!).  Please e-mail me your selected section an hour before class, and again, bring your laptops.

A random announcement for any groups using Sen slope estimaton:  I’ve posted on Blackboard in the MP3 readings folder a paper by Kahru et al. (2011) that used Sen slope in their analysis.  The last paragraph of the Methods section explains the technique rather well; it also cites the original source by Sen (1968).

Public Opin. Quart. 71, 444-470 (2007)

Researchers have compiled a comprehensive summary of trends in public opinion about global warming in the U.S.A.

Matthew C. Nisbet at American University and Teresa Myers at Ohio State University collected survey data from the past 20 years. They found that the level of awareness of global warming is strongly related to the amount of media attention paid to the issue. Despite high levels of public awareness in recent years, few Americans have a good understanding of the science behind global warming. In addition, many Americans erroneously believe that there is widespread disagreement among scientists concerning the legitimacy of global warming.

Most Americans support stricter regulations on industries to control emissions, but are opposed to tax hikes on petrol and electricity that would affect consumer behaviour. Many are also in support of solar and wind energy.

Nature Geoscience 4, 766–770 (2011) doi:10.1038/ngeo1297

Published online 23 October 2011

Wei-Jun Cai and his colleagues analyze to regions that highly influenced by nutrients contained river: the northern Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea. At the two sites, they look to support that eutrophication can increase the susceptibility of coastal waters to ocean acidification.

Both the northern Gulf of Mexico and East China Sea are shallow shelf environments that receive immense loads of nutrients, organic carbon, and inorganic carbon from two of the world’s largest rivers: the Mississippi River and Changjiang River. These two rivers were observed to contain massive loads of nitrates.

After assessing collected data in the two regions, Wei-Jun saw a widespread development of hypoxia, areas of low pH, high dissolved inorganic carbon, and low carbonate saturation state. Wei-Jun showed that eutrophication in the two bodies of water associated with the development of hypoxia and the acidification of subsurface waters.

Gustavo Adolfo Paredes analyses in his dissertation the degradation and recovery of coral reefs.  He specifically looked into the types of conservation techniques used to protect coral reefs.  Marine reserves were found to be the main type of conservation by reducing the impacts of human activities to the ecosystem, especially in relation to fishing.  However, there are is not a plethora of reserves in the Caribbean. A major problem that Paredes discovered was the lack of enforcement in these reserves.  He found that those reserves fully protected showed a trackable amount of positive change.  He also found that the protection efforts occurring were not well known throughout local communities inhibiting their abilities to contribute to the protection of the coral reefs.  Paredes concluded that larger marine reserves need to be designated, more regulations on fisheries need to be implemented, and pollution controls near reserves should be increased as well.

Under lead author Andrea J. Fassbender, researchers studied the transportation of subsurface waters containing high carbon dioxide levels in the California Current System to the surface of the ocean near shorelines.  Specifically, they studied an event of upwelling near coastal northern California.  As the water traveled toward shore, subsurface respiration added dissolved inorganic carbon along its path, making the water undersaturated in terms of Aragonite.  In the mixed layer, levels of pCO(2) decreased due to the addition of DIC, addition of alkalinity, and gas exchange.  The contribution of each process depended on the distance of the area from land.  According analysis of the results, when waters arrive at the surface of the ocean gas exchange and biological productivity reduce ocean acidification over time, but respiration processes along the path followed by the upwelling tend to increase the acidification of the upwelling waters.

Continental Shelf Research 31, 1180-1192 (2011)

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 37, L02601, doi:10.1029/2009GL040999, 2010

As ocean acidification begins to make its mark, scientists have also begun to further examine different bodies of water in respect to the decreasing pH levels. Byrne and colleagues at the University of South Florida studied pH level changes in the Northern Pacific Ocean between 1991 and 2006 at various latitudes. pH levels were determined by spectrophotometry of samples collected along 152°W. Atmospheric CO₂ levels were also determined for this time period, however using a model. Byrne and colleagues found that pH changes were largest at 29°N and 56°N, with pH levels sub 7.3. They believe this may be attributable to these areas having low O₂ levels. Comparing the increases in atmospheric CO₂ with the changes in pH levels, The team concluded that the rate of pH decrease is on par with atmospheric CO₂ increases. This study provides additional evidence on ocean acidification, and its affects on yet another body of water.