User:Billyolds/sandbox

Week 6 assignment: Evaluate a Wikipedia Article

Article: Mire


 * This article has very relevant information on the topic of mires including well organized information on distribution, chemistry and height of mires.
 * This article is coming from a neutral position without any bias. The article is simply using scientific facts and information to display its information about mires without any opinion.
 * For the most part, this article is well balanced. However, the sub topic about the height of the mires is a little over represented as it gives more details than necessary.
 * Only a few citations have active links that connect to the articles being cited.
 * Most information being displayed is properly cited and articles appear to be neutral and academic.
 * Many citations are out dated and most are before 2000, with none being later than 2008. The editors should find more updated articles they can cite and connect active links to.
 * The Talk page has one comment about a contradiction of information with the Bog article that was made in 2016.
 * This article is part of both the WikiProject Ecology as well as the WikiProject Geography. Both have rated this article as Start-Class and Mid-Importance on their respective scales.
 * This article does not go into detail about the impacts that mires and peatland ecosystems have in combating climate change. Whereas in class, we focus on the importance of peatland to be able to store carbon and other nutrients as a system. This article on the other hand focuses more on the actual characteristics and distribution of mires around the world.

Week 7 assignment: Add to a Wikipedia Article

The following was added to the article Desertification under the Poverty subheading:

Agriculture is a main source of income for many desert communities. The increase in desertification in these regions has degraded the land enough where people can no longer productively farm and make a profit. This has negatively impacted the economy and increased poverty rates.

Week 8 assignment: Topic Ideas and Sources

My two partners and I will be contributing information on the impacts of climate change on rat snakes in North America on the Rat snake article. With a changing climate and raising temperatures, rat snakes will be both positively and negatively affected. I will be focusing on how climate change has negatively impacted rat snake populations and behaviours in North America. Some of my ideas include how the early hibernation emergence and an increase in predators may negatively impact rat snakes.

Bibliography:

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Week 9 assignment: Improving an Existing Article

We will be adding tho the existing Rat snake article on the effects of climate change on rat snakes. The article primarily focuses on the different species of rat snakes as well taxonomy and captive measure. The article lacks important information about the behaviour, distribution and other biological components of rat snakes. The article also has very few references and could use more detail and data to expand on what is being presented. We will be adding much more relevant and informative sources when referencing our contributions to this article.

Week 10 assignment: Peer Review and Edit

I have reviewed and inputed my peer review edit on the talk page of User talk:WCCWCCWCC/sandbox on the Older Dryas article topic.

Negative Impacts
Eastern rat snakes species in North America are experiencing negative shifts in their behaviour due to climate change and increasing temperatures. These shifts differ between the large distributions of rat snakes that range from Ontario to Texas. The increasing temperatures can negatively impact this species and can be attributed to population declines in some areas.

Rat snake populations from their most northern range, such as Ontario, are experiencing a shift in hibernation emergence. The populations in these regions typically emerge from hibernation in late April. However, the increasing variability in temperature may cause rat snakes to emerge on a warm sunny day in the February or March. This constantly changing climate can turn very quickly and become a blizzard with negative temperatures. The early emergence of these rat snakes will now expose them to these fatal conditions if the snake cannot return to its hibernaculum in time. The unpredictability of the weather is causing more rat snakes in their northern range to get caught in this these cold snaps and freeze to death.

Increasing temperatures due to climate change have increased the nocturnal activity of rat snakes, especially in warmer climates such as Texas. This has allowed them to alter their predation habits and feed more on nesting birds and other accessible prey. However, their increased nocturnal activity puts them at risk to a new range of nocturnal predators. Rat snakes may not be used to the presence of nocturnal predators such as raccoons and owls and may be vulnerable as prey. Until rat snakes are able to adapt to their relatively new predators, populations may be at risk due to heavy predation from other animals.