User talk:Pat uconn

Welcome!
Hello, Pat uconn, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; 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) 15:42, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

European Eel Article Review

Article History The article was first published in 2007. Back then it was only about 300 bytes. Today it has been edited multiple times and is up over 7,000 bytes in size.

Talk Page There is little discussion in the talk page for this article. The most notable information in the discussion is European eel's ability to travel across land and methods of preparation and consumption of the eel as food.

Article Evaluation The article makes use of linking the life history of European eels to the life history of all eel populations. The article also talks about the conservation status of European eels.

Ways to Improve the Article While there is some useful information in the article, there is no section for the physiology of European eels. This means I would be able to make a solid contribution to the material of the article.


 * Pat, thanks for a thorough evaluation of the European eel article. I have assigned it to you for your Wiki work this semester.  Please read your taxon teammate's evaluation and post feedback on his talk page.  Also, please complete the training modules that were assigned last week. Rico.schultz (talk) 18:52, 18 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Feedback - From your evaluation, it seems that the wiki articles for our two species are very similar, as both of our articles also started as "stubs" and have grown much since. It sounds like the talk page for your organism is somewhat more helpful than my own, although find it interesting that both are similar in their relation to being used as food. It also seems useful to have a link the main article on the life history of eels in general, as they are most likely similar to all species. It seems fortunate to have a clean slate to work with as far as physiology information goes, although somewhat intimidating to have nothing else to work with. Adamtychiu (talk) 00:21, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Synopsis

Crean, S.R., Dick, J.T.A. Evans, D.W. Rosell, R.S. Elwood, R. W. 2005. Survival of juvenile European eels (Anguilla anguilla) transferred among salinities, and developmental shifts in their salinity preference. Journal of Zoology, 266. 11-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0952836905006539.

European eel (Anguilla anguilla) go through various developmental stages in their life cycle. They are first spawned in the ocean where they develop into larva. From the larval stage they develop into transparent juveniles and move into estuary waters. They continue their development into semi-pigmented elvers and then into fully pigmented eels. Adult European eels live most of their lives in freshwater. The populations of European eels have slowly been decreasing since the 1980’s. It is not fully understood what is causing the reduction in populations. In an effort to increase the survivorship of developing European eels, individuals of the species have been captured and placed directly into freshwater. The investigators of this study hypothesized that a sudden change in salinity might actually be more harmful to the eels being relocated. The objective of this study was to examine the effects on survivorship due to changes in salinity. In order to test the effects of salinity on survivorship the investigators conducted two different experiments. In the first experiment conducted 10 eels were each placed in five tanks. These tanks had different salt concentrations including 100% freshwater, 100% saltwater, and a 50% fresh/salt mixture. The eels were kept in the tanks for 21 days and mortalities were recorded. A three chamber system was built for the second experiment. Each chamber had the same salinities as the first experiment: 100% freshwater, 100% saltwater, and a 50% fresh/salt mixture. An eel was initially placed in the 50% fresh/salt mixture tank and held there for 30 minutes. After time elapsed the eel was allowed to move freely amongst the three chambers. Movement was then recorded for an additional 30 minutes using a computer and a motion capture program. Ten eels of each development stage were tested individually to observe salinity preferences. The first experiment determined survivorship of the various developmental stages under different salinity conditions. It was found that glass eels and semi-pigmented elvers were able to survive under all salt concentrations, while the fully-pigmented elver suffered high mortality in 100% seawater. The second experiment showed that glass eels generally preferred 100% seawater while fully-pigmented preferred 100% freshwater. This study is important because it shows that moving eels is a safe method to increase the survivorship of developing A. anguilla. I think this study was carried out very well. The use of two different experiments to show both the survivorship of the developing eels and the salinity preference of each was a useful technique. The investigators also clearly set up parameters for the various developmental stages which allowed for more accurate results.

Bibliography

Crean, S.R., Dick, J.T.A. Evans, D.W. Rosell, R.S. Elwood, R. W. 2005. Survival of juvenile European eels (Anguilla anguilla) transferred among salinities, and developmental shifts in their salinity preference. Journal of Zoology, 266. 11-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0952836905006539.