User talk:Mr. Jotatohead/Freshwater biology

Thank you for working to improve the “Freshwater Biology” page in Wikipedia! The original page did not include much more than a definition of the field within a short lead section, so I am excited to see these proposed additions to improve this page. A bit about myself – I am a freshwater ecologist who works as a research and teaching professor in the United States. I have been learning about and conducting research in freshwater ecosystems for ~20 years now. I have been a professor for 5 years.

Overall comments:
The proposed edits do not include a lead section. I recommend that the edits keep the original Freshwater Biology lead before adding the new material proposed and reviewed here.

I am not certain if the image as presented is considered open source, but will defer to wiki rules for image use.

The proposed additions include a section on “Importance of Freshwater Biology” and a section that follows on “Population Aid” and “Captive Breeding”. While the fisheries services provided by freshwater ecosystems are indeed important, this update is a bit more specific than is appropriate for a general topic that does not include much overview in its current form. I have a few suggestions to update formatting to broaden the scope while still highlighting the important services and resources provided by freshwater ecosystems. Additional potential resources to cite are included at the end.

Consider changing the new section title from “Importance of Freshwater Biology” to “Applications of Freshwater Biology” and making "Captive Breeding" a subsection of "Applications of Freshwater Biology". (I would delete "Population Aid; this is not common terminology in the field of Freshwater Biology and is not needed for article structure.) Because fisheries, including captive breeding efforts for the conservation of some fisheries, is only a subset of the services provided by freshwater ecosystems (see #1 linked below), this suggested update to your article structure will make it easier for others to expand and add to your contribution.

Text-specific edit suggestions:
I suggest the first sentence be changed to "Freshwater biology is a multifaceted discipline that examines the relationships between organisms and their environment within freshwater ecosystems."

"There are many factors to take into consideration" is not informative on its own. I would delete and expand the "Among these factors" sentence to instead say: "Freshwater organisms experience negative impacts from human activities, such as emerging contaminants, nutrient pollution, non-native species introductions, and flow modifications". Potential citations for this statement could include resources 2-5 shared below.

Suggest changing " interactions from the biotic and abiotic within the system" to "interactions between biotic and abiotic components within the system"

Suggest specifying what "this" is in "An example of this" by changing to something like "An example of a freshwater biology application to management would be examining..."

Without a link to a source that uses the exact terminology, I am not sure how the reader should interpret "predator and prey ratios". I suggest changing to "Differences in abundance can effect predator-prey and other food web dynamics over time" - it is more specific than "these differences". And will then lead in nicely to the sentence that follows on food webs!

The following is not a complete sentence as written: "It is also useful in diagnosing irregularities, water health, public health, human health." I suggest changing to "It is also useful in diagnosing irregularities in water health, public health, and human health.", but perhaps the author intended a different meaning and will come up with a more appropriate edit to include clarity.

Consider editing the transition from an overview of "Applications of Freshwater Biology" to a more specific focus on fisheries (suggested edits included in the sentence as quoted): "One application of freshwater biology is to aid in fisheries population restoration. This can be accomplished through population management techniques that include captive breeding, species introductions, and species removal." The "Captive Breeding" section would follow.

Don't forget to remove the following note: "(this link provides a more extensive read about the efforts and the science behind it all)" from the published update!

To be as specific as possible in the article consider changing the following text "Regardless for the reason, they found out that is was primarily a genetic issue, as opposed to environmental stressors." to "Regardless of the reason, captive breeding challenges with steelhead trout was primarily a genetic issue, as opposed to environmental stressors." And make sure to cite the source of information.

Consider including the following edits to the final sentence: "Other biological tools used to aid in fisheries population restoration are studies of population dynamics, including carrying capacity, and managing nutrients and other limiting resources using frameworks like Liebig's law of the minimum."

"Related fields" might be more appropriately named "Related topics". Please add Limnology ! Only “stream ecology” and “limnology” are fields related to freshwater biology. The others are ecosystem types and organisms included in the study of freshwater biology.

Additional resources of interest:
1. Freshwater Ecosystem Services chapters of the Millennium Assessment: http://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.312.aspx.pdf

2. Craig et al. https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article/doi/10.1525/elementa.256/112455

3. Kumaraswamy et al. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-8277-2_5

4. Dudgeon https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219310140

5. Reid et al. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/brv.12480

6. Blettler & Wantzen https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-019-4220-z

Fluvialbenthos (talk) 16:36, 12 April 2021 (UTC)