User talk:Gerbitrm

Welcome!
Hello, Gerbitrm, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with Wiki Education; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 19:14, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Spring Bloom Review
Hi! I am Maggi Brisbin and I am serving as the expert reviewer for your contribution to the "Spring Bloom" page.

I noticed many substantial additions in your sandbox version of the page. In summary, you added photo of a coastal algal bloom in the Philippines as the main figure for the page, added an aerial image of an algal bloom, extensively expanded the "Alternative mechanisms" section from a bulleted list to a full section with several subheadings, added information on temperature effects in the "Variability and influence of climate change" section, and added a new section "Environmental effects". Overall, this is an excellent and comprehensive contribution that significantly improved the page. I have a few small suggestions that might improve clarity for readers:

I suggest adding a reference for the sentences regarding a shift towards smaller phytoplankton species in spring blooms (end of 3rd paragraph in the "Variability and influence of climate change"). In addition, it would be helpful to define "pico-plankton" and provide a wikilink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picoplankton). Ultra-plankton was defined higher up on the page -- in my field, this is an uncommon distinction and the pico/nano fraction is more often referred to. I am sure it is different in various fields, but it would probably be helpful to stick to one definition for size classes. I, therefore, suggest also editing the reference to ultra-plankton higher up to instead refer to pico/nano plankton.

At the end of the fourth paragraph in "Variability and influence of climate change", you included some nice information about different diatom species dominating blooms following cold and warm winters. I think this sentence could be revised to make it more accessible to non-experts. What is different about A. granulata and F. crotonensis compared to "small centric diatoms"? Is it that they are chain-forming? If so, you might forgo the species name altogether and just say there is a shift to larger, chain-forming diatoms.

Overall - adding more wikilinks will help readers. For example, a wikilink to "copepod" would be really helpful.

Maggibrisbin (talk) 17:54, 29 November 2020 (UTC)