Talk:Alnus rubra

"The largest in America" does not automatically mean "the largest in the world"
I replaced "the world's largest species of alder" by "the largest species of alder in North America and one of the largest in the world". The Alnus rubra site say the tallest A. rubra is officially 32 metres tall. The tallest measured Alnus glutinosa subsp. glutinosa in Finland is 32 metres tall (Väre, H. & Kiuru, H. 2006: Suomen puut ja pensaat (=Trees and shrubs of Finland). Metsäkustannus, Helsinki.), and in Central Europe the species grows even taller, but I haven't found information about the tallest measured specimens. In moist forests along the Caspian coast in northern Iran I have found giant specimens of A. glutinosa subsp. barbata which greatly exceed in size all the A. glutinosa subsp. glutinosa trees I have seen in Europe and also all the A. rubra trees I have seen in the Pacific Northwest of North America, but again: exact measurements are missing. I am not saying A. glutinosa is the largest alder species. But surely we have not information about world's alders enough to say A. rubra is the largest. However, it is safe to say A. rubra and A. glutinosa both are in the largest size class of the alders. Krasanen (talk) 12:19, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I found the height record for A. glutinosa in Germany: 37.4 metres. http://www.mluv.brandenburg.de/cms/detail.php/lbm1.c.189715.de Krasanen (talk) 16:17, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

"Poineer Species --> Pioneer Species" Spelling Change
--Urahozer (talk) 03:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Genetic Diversity
Some references for genetic diversity of the red alder (Alnus rubra). 1. Hughes, A., Inouye, B., Johnson, M., Underwood, N., & Vellend, M. (2008). Ecological consequences of genetic diversity. Ecology Letters, 609-623.

2. Crutsinger, G. (2006). Plant Genotypic Diversity Predicts Community Structure and Governs an Ecosystem Process. Science, 966-968.

3. Withrow-Robinson, B. A., & Johnson, R. (2006). Selecting native plant materials for restoration projects: ensuring local adaptation and maintaining genetic diversity. Corvallis, Or.: Extension Service, Oregon State University.

4. Xie, C. Y. (2008). Ten-year results from red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) provenance-progeny testing and their implications for genetic improvement. New forests, 36(3), 273-284.

5. Another article: Ager, A. A., Heilman, P. E., & Stettler, R. F. (1993). Genetic variation in red alder (Alnus rubra) in relation to native climate and geography. Canadian Journal Of Forest Research, 23(9), 1930. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fins42 (talk • contribs) 13:40, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Fins42 (talk) 02:38, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Are there any popsci or online resources you could use for your article?Evol&#38;Glass (talk) 19:24, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Added a section on Genetic Diversity. Fins42 (talk) 13:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Commenting on Genetic Diversity Section.
 * First paragraph: What does allozyme variation in Drosophila have to do with Alnus rubra? Explain more on how Drosophila and Alnus rubra are similar in terms of genetic diversity. Drosophila is not endangered; Alnus rubra is. “Endangered species tend to have a smaller amount of individuals in the population” – No need to state the obvious.


 * Second Paragraph: “Differences in DNA” – Does this mean the same as genetic variation? I think it does, but in a more broad and ambiguous way. No need to change the term and create unnecessary confusion. Briefly explain why an organism’s range of habitat is positively correlated with genetic variation. “Which would result in a small amount of genetic diversity.” – Sentence fragment; please connect with the prior sentence.


 * Third Paragraph: Explain why ecological effects on important traits for the species cannot be assumed. “This means that if there is low genetic diversity there could be inbreeding” – Clarify the causal relationship between low genetic diversity and inbreeding. Right now it seems as you’re saying low genetic diversity could cause inbreeding. According to our class discussion, inbreeding leads to low genetic diversity, not vice versa. “and this could lead to few differences in key ecological traits” – It feels like this whole sentence is circling around; ‘low genetic diversity could cause inbreeding, which could lead to low diversity in ecological trait’. Please clarify.


 * Fourth Paragraph: “Genetic diversity is the amount of genetic variation in population.” – Shouldn’t this be in the first paragraph? You have been talking about genetic diversity all along and suddenly you decide to introduce the definition now. Also missing ‘a’ before population. “whether induced by humans or natural” – natural should be nature.  “in the environment there needs to be genetic diversity” – Change the wording to ‘there needs to be genetic diversity in the environment’. “with a early bud break” – ‘a’ should be ‘an’.


 * Fifth Paragraph: “More populations tend to flock towards plant species that have more genetic diversity.” – What’s the reason behind? Please specify. “When the number of herbivore populations increases this, in turn, causes the number of predator populations to go up, leading to a rise in the number of species in the area.” – Add a comma, since it’s confusing. ‘~ populations increases, this, in turn, causes~’. “leading to a rise in the number of species in the area.” – Number of which species? If the number of predators go up, then the number of herbivores will go down. Please explain. “This was shown through a study of the plant, Solidago altissima.” – Explain how relevant Solidago altissima is to Alnus rubra. Is it relevant at all? “The genetic diversity was varied throughout a number of plots and the number of arthropod populations were recorded” – What plots? What arthropod? They just suddenly appear out of nowhere. Explain how all these are related to the topic.


 * In general: Please link certain terms or concepts to their corresponding Wikipedia article. For example, Species instead of just Species.Khzzang9 (talk) 00:59, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

SLU Evolutionary Biology 3010-2
The paragraphs you added were well written. One suggestion would be to add more information specific to you plant species. I loved having the background knowledge needed to understand some things about your species but it was more general information than information specific to Alnus rubra. Another suggestion I have is that you could add specifically how endangered this species is. There is an official conservations list and it would be interesting to see that how threatened it is and if the need for conservation is urgent. The only edit I made was to a run on sentence that started out with, “Without a large amount of genetic diversity…” under the section Genetic Diversity. Lopezospina (talk) 06:16, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

In the genetic diversity, The fourth paragraph was moved to be the first paragraph. I took out the first sentence of the first paragraph and any specifics relating to certain studies. I added more specifics about genetic variation among the red alders in paragraphs four and five. I tried to relate the general information on genetic diversity specifically to red alders in paragraphs 2,4, and 5. I reworded the sentence on inbreeding. I tried to clarifty the fifth paragraph. I reworded a couple sentences. Fins42 (talk) 14:46, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Peer Review - Here are the comments I have for your article: In the first paragraph, explain how/why genetic diversity helps a population adapt. What are the three traits that have sufficient genetic diversity that you mention in the fourth paragraph? The last paragraph would be more meaningful to the article if it included more specific information about the Red Alder’s interaction with the ecosystem. It is unclear if the information present is about the Red Alder or not. Evolution43 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:15, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Great work editing/ adding your references. I also see that you corrected some punctuation, awesome. Basically keep up the good work, the page looks well organized and it really through. If you're looking to add more I would say to maybe look into how is says scientist use it as an indicator for ozone pollution. That sounds really interesting. Do they only use it in the environments it grows in or do they use it in other places and how? Lopezospina (talk) 04:11, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello! I enjoyed reading your contributions to this article regarding genetic diversity in Red Adlers. Of course genetic diversity is a crucial evolutionary biology topic, and the information that you provided gave great insight into why the Red Adler has litte genetic diversity and the resulting implications of this. The edits that I made were largely reducing redundancy and removing text that was too general and not specific to Red Adlers. For example, a large portion of the text was dedicated to explaining what genetic diversity is in general. I cut out and reworded many of these sentences because I felt that they were not relevant to Red Adlers, and may be more fitted to an article discussing the broader concept of genetic diversity. For example, your first paragraph had "Genetic diversity is the amount of genetic variation in a population.[8] When a habitat is subjected to change due to humans, genetic variation is important in a population so they are able to change with the environment.[9] In order to adapt to changes, whether induced by humans or natural, in the environment there needs to be genetic diversity [10]" which I tried making relevant to Red Adlers by replacing with "For a population to adapt to changes in the environment, genetic diversity must exist.[8] Endangered species also tend to have a smaller amount of individuals in the population.[9] There may be a positive correlation between population size and the genetic diversity in a population, suggesting that endangered species show lower genetic diversity.[10] Therefore, the endangered Red Adler has less genetic diversity than unthreatened species. [11]" Another specific example that I removed was your sentence regarding herbivore and predator populations, as I was not sure of its relevance. I also condensed wordy sentences wherever possible. I would suggest keeping the text as relevant to Red Adlers as possible rather than broader topics. Also, citing sources less frequently may help with clarity and make the article flow smoother. Great work! NeverStopEvolving (talk)

Thank you for all the comments and edits they really make the article better! For this edit I just reworded a couple sentences. I tried to keep the text relevant and concise.Fins42 (talk) 14:32, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 19:44, 1 May 2016 (UTC)