Talk:Species distribution

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Hi -- I am a TA for an introductory biology course, and plan to have my students edit this wikipedia page as their last 'quiz' for our course. Posts will be between April 2 and April 9, 2009. I will instruct my students to respond to comments on this page to encourage the efficient editing of information! Thanks! EricaVE —Preceding unsigned comment added by EricaVE (talk • contribs) 13:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi everyone! This morning I made minor edits to the random distribution (saying it is uncommon)and clumped dispersion (saying it is common) sections. I also added the example of Salvia leucophylla to the uniform dispersion section. I worked for about half an hour trying to cite it. I keep getting an error message and I don't know why! If anyone who is good with html can figure it out, I'd be so grateful. Otherwise, I'll work on it more tonight. Thanks! -Lauren Richburg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ler326 (talk • contribs) 15:03, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Justin here, I just cleaned up some minor grammar and word use. The page is saying the exact same thing, but a little more succinctly now. I also linked to the Bald Eagle page, and now the Salvia link still goes to the genus page, while the leucophylla link now goes to the species page, rather than the Leucophylla moth stub. I also formatted the species name properly. Sorry that I'm crowding the edit history, but I'd like this to look nice. Livingdust (talk) 01:30, 4 April 2009 (UTC) Inserted the reference tag under Notes at the base of the page, as well as cited Blackith for the Clark-Evans method. Could we find an ISBN number on that? Livingdust (talk) 01:41, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Here is the citation for the section on uniform distribution: Mauseth, James. (2008) Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology. Johns and Bartlett Publishers. -Lauren —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.227.69.36 (talk) 02:32, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

___Linda___ I added in a little blurb about biogeography and how it is beneficial to the study of species distribution. If you want, I can find more information on it and add a section. Also, I just fixed the grammar and wording of some paragraphs so that it flows more and is more concise. 3:28 4/06/09 Binhle (talk) 19:29, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

editing suggestions
Hi - Erica here - some editing suggestions:

Sort out the confusion between DISPERSAL (a process) and DISTRIBUTION (a pattern) - for example: "Individuals within a species are spread through many methods." and "People tend to be large distributors due to the current trends in globalization and the efficiency of the transportation industry." What does the author mean by "large distributions"? The type of dispersal is not the same is the observed distribution of organisms. However, the type of dispersal (wind vs. animal-mediated -- see wiki page on biological dispersal) can AFFECT the pattern of species distribution. Clarify!

"Species distribution is not the same simple theory that it was 50-100 years ago. It is more complex, and a broader sense of the concept must be grasped in order to fully understand the implications of species distribution." This needs to be explained (how was it a simple theory before and what changed) or why have these sentences at all?

Both the clumped and the random distribution sections -- what CONDITIONS (environmental, social, species interactions, etc.) create the possibility for random distribution? There is info about this in the powerpoint and the textbook. Once this info is entered, it will be easier to sort examples into categories.

Nice to see the references being put in!!

:)
Hello, Robert here. I just went through and cleaned up the page, fixed some grammar issues, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Orobert78 (talk • contribs) 20:32, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Hello, it's Adam. Sorry if I'm posting this update in the completely wrong spot, but I just added a section on the Species Distribution Grids Project. I've already added pictures and sources and done most of the dirty work for this section. (It took forever to figure out how to insert the pictures the right way). Anyway, the text itself could probably be a little longer, so if anyone wants to use the sources I found and build on that section (while I finish my lab report), it could be a good idea. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mavsmanaf (talk • contribs) 20:16, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi,This is Kaitlyn and Julia we decided to add a little to each section such as the stuff about predation in clumped distribution. comment and let us know what we can expand on. :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.227.139.113 (talk) 03:10, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi, This is Brittany Fiore and Jessica Joseph from the Thursday afternoon section. We just finished editing the "Statistical Determination of Distribution Patterns" section of the page. We explained the process of both the Clark-Evans Nearest Neighbor Method and the Variance/Mean Ratio Method, and added an example of what we did in lab last week. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BrittanyJessica (talk • contribs) 20:51, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

I like the additions to the statistical section- it really helps explain what the methods are. I do think that we need to maintain a neutral tone, and it might be better to write the example from our lab without taking ownership of having been the ones to collect the data... it just feels inconsistent with the encyclopedic nature of Wikipedia. Perhaps we could include the same information (or a little more) as a worked-out example of the method? Livingdust (talk) 14:53, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Class, I reworded the examples in the statistical section to be more general. Let me know if it helped.

TEAM: Brittany and Jessica. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BrittanyJessica (talk • contribs) 00:14, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Added a few details today: sentence on reproduction in the first paragraph and example of tropical fig trees to "random distribiton" section. -Lauren —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ler326 (talk • contribs) 01:22, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Team Ashley and Youssef: We corrected the very few grammatical mistakes that we could find. Added at the end of clumped distribution another reason why it is the most common type of dispersion found in nature along with an example. We also included information on the correlation between threatened species and clumped distribution.Youssefshaban (talk) 02:35, 8 April 2009 (UTC) --Amacwhinnie (talk) 21:42, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Ashely and Youssef: We added an animal example of random distribution (Oyster larvae) to the plant examples provided.Youssefshaban (talk) 02:57, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

more edit suggestions
Hi Erica here again. This is looking SO much better! I think many of the major points are in here now - could someone take on the editing of each section to improve the writing? By this I mean make the writing more concise, better organized and fit with the style of wikipedia. See comments others have made on this as well (above).

Images? Can some of you earlier contributors get an image up there? You can use images already uploaded to wikipedia, search for images without copyrights, or write to the person who has posted an image and get their permission to upload it (they'll probably agree!).

Also, besides the references, many wikipedia pages have links for 'Further Reading' and 'External Links' - anything we want to put here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by EricaVE (talk • contribs) 15:44, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

- —Preceding unsigned comment added by EricaVE (talk • contribs) 18:14, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

edit suggestions
Hey it's Leo W., David R., and Grace S. We further elaborate on the abiotic and biotic factors. We added in

Furthermore, “non-living chemical or physical factor in the environment, such as soil, pH, forest fire, etc.” There are three main types of abiotic factors. Climatic factors consist of sunlight, atmosphere, humidity, temperature, and other things in that area. Edaphic factors are the nature and type of soil, geology of the land, and etc. Social factors comprise of land use, water resources, and etc.

and also

The action of an organism that in return affects another organism is an example of biotic factor, because it results in an interaction with any living component in the environment, such as a predator consuming its prey. An example of biotic factors in a quail’s environment would their prey (insects, seeds, etc.) and their predators, for instance the coyote. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neisha89 (talk • contribs) 22:00, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

I rearranged the order of subsections to be more logical to a first time reader, cleaned up some grammar and clarified a few sentences without changing the meaning. To the sides are some pictures we might want to use to show clumped and uniform distributions, or possible the affect of viewing scale. (you can find the coding by editing this page and looking at this post, but I think they will need to be manually resized larger than they are displayed here. Extended image syntax for help on that.) Livingdust (talk) 01:09, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi, this is Dana. I just added a sentence or two to each of these sections (biotic/abiotic, clumped, random, and uniform).

Hey, Brooke and Veronica added a sentence to clarify the confusion about dispersal, we defined it near the top of the article. We also edited the Random distribution section of the article. We reworded some of the paragraph to make it flow better and eliminate what seemed to be repetative. We also added one or two sentences to the random distribtuion section as well. Biogirl14 (talk) 02:36, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

more edit suggestions for BSC students
First, read through above comments - some have not been addressed

More clarification about what is included and not included in this wiki entry could be helpful. Sort out species range, species distribution, biogeography, and modeling of species distribution. Google 'species distribution' and look at the images that come up. You will see maps of species distributions. If we are not including where a species is distributed across an area in this entry, this should be acknowledged and people referred elsewhere, because when many people think of 'species distribution', they are probably thinking of where species are found (rather than the pattern within an area where species are found). perhaps also a link to species Range_(biology) (another wiki page that needs some improvement!!)

There is lots of detail on how to measure species distribution of organisms that don't move (ex. plants that you can count), but how do scientists measure species distribution (or patterns of species distribution) or organisms that MOVE ?

Here are some specific parts of the site that I noticed could be improved:

"Distribution usually takes place at the time of reproduction." -- dispersal vs. distribution (see previous comments)

"all the offspring are in a target area before they learn to fly" -- "target area?"

"Besides social factors and inability of offspring to move from its habitat, another reason for why clumped distribution is the most common type of dispersion is due to the fact that every living thing depends on certain available resources and since there is a limited amount of resources in certain areas, animals "clump" near these areas that contain the resources they need to survive." -- improve writing

"and has also been shown to decreases wheat growth but increases rice yield." -- why in the article on species distribtion?

"The need to maximize the space between individuals generally arises from competition for a resource such as moisture or nutrients." -- why at end of section (uniform distribution)

"Random distribution is the least common form of distribution in nature, the members of a species are found in found in random locations with no observable placing scheme.This type of distribution is also referred to as unpredictable spacing. The position of each individual is independent of the other individuals. Random distribution is hard to find in nature because biotic and abiotic factors can cause organisms to be close together or far apart." -- fix redundancy in writing

"When dandelion seeds are dispersed by wind, random distribution will often occur as the seedlings land in random places. Tropical fig trees exhibit this type of dispersal." -- fix flow of logic, explain

"Abiotic and Biotic factors" -- I like the idea of this section, but it needs some work to eliminate redundancy with the previous sections. What additional points are being made or clarified in this section?

Clark Evans -- "The average distance between nearest neighbors is compared to the expected distance in the case of random distribution to give the ratio:" -- the formula that follows is to calculate the expected distance, not the ratio of measured/expected

"An example of this method can be found in examining a population of a local variety of flowers to determine the type of its distribution." -- example is unclear / unnecessary

Variance/mean -- "Again, statistical tests (t-test, chi squared, etc.) can be used to find the significance of the variance/mean ratio." -- improve precision of statement

"However, many researchers believe that species distribution models based on statistical analysis without including ecological models and theories are too incomplete for prediction. Instead of conclusions based on presence-absence data, probabilities that convey the likelihood a species will occupy a given area is more preferred because these models include an estimate of confidence in the likelihood of the species being present/absent." -- clarify this paragraph -- is this biogeography? instead of referencing what 'many researchers believe', focus on the information to present. I think the concept here can be presented more succinctly, then maybe an example

Original Clark-Evans citation is from 1954 in Ecology -- can someone find this? ==

I made several of the above suggested minor edits. A few of the ones involving idea content still need to be addressed, and the redundancy between the clumped/scattered/random and abiotic/biotic also needs to be smoothed out. I think the existing examples should be elaborated and simplified (both at once, that's a challenge!) instead of throwing in half-baked new examples. I also made a few internal links off of material already in the article, such as a link to Student's t-test and Chi-squared. Livingdust (talk) 03:24, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

==

The clumped vs dispersed vs hyperdispersed graphic and the species richness graphics are interesting, but I think the most salient graphic for species range or species distribution would be a map of a single species showing its entire geographical range. I can provide an example if interested. Threelovemonkeys (talk) 12:14, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

resources, resources...
why are there no resources in the introduction ? --ᔕGᕼᗩIEᖇ ᗰOᕼᗩᗰEᗪ (talk) 09:35, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Merge debate
Please have a look at Portal talk:Biology. In fact I don't really suggest a merge. I suggest this to be discussed only. Regards. Kintaro (talk) 21:18, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2024
— Assignment last updated by Warmedforbs (talk) 01:25, 18 April 2024 (UTC)