User:Ac7530/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Functional ecology

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am not as familiar with the topic of functional ecology. It is an important part of modern ecology in that it encompasses how ecological systems operate and what part specific species play within their systems. It strikes me that the article mostly focuses on the applications of functional ecology rather than the actual processes that define it.

Evaluate the article
The lead section of this article does a good job of summarizing the topic and giving the main overview of the topic. It gives the main explanation to the topic, and only introduces some of the topics that are introduced. It would be beneficial for the lead section to touch on functional diversity, as that topic is addressed later in the article. The article's content is relevant and also appears to be up to date. The section that describes functional diversity could more clearly define how functional ecology and functional diversity are related. However, the article doesn't seem to address any of Wikipedia's equity gaps since it does not discuss historically underrepresented topics. A neutral tone is used throughout the piece and does a good job of addressing all perspectives in a non-partisan way when more controversial topics, like de-extinction comes up. I think distinguishing the prevalence of certain perspectives could be helpful rather than just presenting all of the different viewpoints. However, the article doesn't try to draw the reader into any one particular position. The article cites sources to support almost all of the facts presented. The sources are adequately representative of the basis of literature relating this topic. They are also current and, when relevant, published within the last sixteen years. There is a decent amount of female authors present within the sources however there could be more scientists of color overall. Almost all of the sources are peer-reviewed articles, and at least an abstract is accessible through their links. The article is well organized and is broken down into understandable chunks. The lead section is written well, and in a way that gives a thoughtful introduction to the topic. There could be more use of pictures to emphasize the article's points since there is only one at the beginning of the article. One table is included later in the piece, that is helpful in understanding how different concepts relate. A little more information could be included on the general topic. Possibly including examples or linking to examples of the phenomena. Furthermore, it seems to be a topic that is interwoven with many other topics, so it would helpful if the article linked to other pages concerning these topics, specifically relating to functional diversity. Overall the article gives good information on the topic of functional ecology.