User talk:Cokraymurphy/sandbox

Article Evaluation
Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you? Everything in the article is relevant, but the article puts more distracting and less relevant information at the front, such as the small interlude about otter feces. The information about otter hunting habits and relations with humans would be better served closer to the top. The large listing of species does nothing more that distract the reader. The actual small descriptions of the species of otters below the listing do not and are relevant.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? The article appears to be neutral. The article is backed by multiple sources that support the claims laid out and there are no controversial claims stated that would confuse the reader. They do have a small section on otters being playful that is not referenced, but they have more references to support that claim further in the text.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? There is a large amount of information about the otter in Japanese folklore that can be condensed down.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? The some species links have dead pages associated with them and reference 12 is dead. The other citations seen inside of the content are live.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted? There is the part near the top of the article that the otter is playful that is not referenced. Information comes from books, research studies, and websites about otters such as www.OtterWorld.com. The books and research articles should be neutral, the websites specifically about otters or sea life may be biased towards them in order to drive an interest in otters.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added? Most of the information has been written or retrieved in the last 10 years. Some of the webpages used have died and could use an update with a research paper or text that will retain a tracking number.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? Some of the impertinent information has been pruned out since it was unsupported and there have been conversations on fact checking.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? Otter has been listed as a level-4 vital article in Science. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mammals

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? Wikipedia focuses on the otter lifestyle and living habits with a bit of history and specific diet whereas in class we focused on it's role as a low tier consumer.

Rough Draft - Evolutionary Ecology
The comments inside of the article reference the fact that some overarching concepts, such as faunas, biomes, niches, etc., aren't mentioned at all inside of the article. My job would be to integrate those into the article in a fluid manner. In addition to this, very few technical topics are mentioned inside of the article. I would also be integrating those into the article for more information readily available. The final thing I would be looking at is ecological genetics and expanding upon this topic so that a wide base is covered inside of the evolutionary ecology article. Genetics are an important part of evolution and don't seem to be mentioned much here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cokraymurphy (talk • contribs) 21:28, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Ecological genetics
Ecological genetics tie into evolutionary ecology through the study of how traits evolve in natural populations. Ecologists are concerned with how the environment and timeframe leads to genes becoming dominant. Organisms must continually adapt in order to survive in natural habitats. Genes define which organisms survive and which will die out. When organisms develop different genetic variations, even though they stem from the same species, it is known as polymorphism. Organisms that pass on beneficial genes continue to evolve their species to have an advantage inside of their niche.

Biomes
Biomes are environments which house a variety of plants and animals that have adapted to the rainfall and temperature natural to said environment. There are eight main biomes: tropical forests, savannas, deserts, grasslands, temperate forests, mediterranean, coniferous forests, and tundras. Each biome has different organisms present that have adapted to the environment so as to retain their niche. Niches are the home inside of the environment that define an organism’s role. Different organisms have different niches based upon their diet, adaptations to the environment, and place inside of the food chain. The organisms that reside within the biome are defined as the fauna of the biome.