Guidelines for Discussing Papers

During the course of the semester, each student will be the primary discussion leader and prepare a short handout (1-2 pages) on either a research or review article. The following guidelines provide a general template for the review, writeup and discussion (< 15 min/paper) of these assigned papers. (Drop off a copy of the article immediately following Monday's class & bring 30 copies of your summary writeup for distribution to your classmates on Thursday /see weekly assignments below) 

I) Definitions: Write down words or terms that are new to you in the assigned paper. (Define these terms prior to arrival in class if possible; otherwise, define them during the group discussion.)

II) Summary: Write a short, objective summary of the paper. Do not criticize the paper at this point, simply summarize in a few sentences the purpose, main findings and "take home" message(s).

III) Objectives: Explicitly state the objective(s) of the paper, as given by the author(s). What reason(s) are given to support the scientific importance or relevance of the objectives?

IV) Methods: Are the methods used (if any) appropriate and adequate for the questions or hypotheses that are being addressed? Identify any methods that are not clearly presented or that you do not understand.

V) Results: List the main results presented in the paper, include copies of key figures/tables. How do the results relate to the questions (or test the hypotheses) set forth in the Objectives? Identify any unclear results.

VI) Discussion: (Here is where you should offer your personal evaluation of the paper.) How well does the Discussion reflect the Results? Are interpretations of the data presented in the Results section justified, or are interpretations and discussion very speculative? Does the paper adequately represent both the strengths/weaknesses of the main findings?

VII) Overall: What do you consider as the main strengths of the paper? What are the weaknesses? What is interesting about the paper? What new did you learn? What relevance does this paper have to issues or topics that have been discussed in class? What additional topics in other areas of ecology can you relate this paper to, either in terms of basic science or in terms of applied science?

Assigned Literature Review Papers

Week 2 (1/23)
Salz ~ Aube, M. and L. Caron. 2001.  The mangroves of the north coast of Haiti.  Wetlands Ecology & Management 9: 271-278. (pdf file)
Stumpf ~ Lu, J. 1995.  Ecological significance and classification of Chinese wetlands.  Vegetatio 118: 49-56 (get copy from me)

Week 3 (1/30)
Pence ~ Rheinhart, RD and K Faser. 2001. Relationship between hydrology and zonation of freshwater swale wetlands on lower Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA. Wetlands 21: 265-273.
Mosley ~ Amon, JP, CA Thompson, QJ Carpenter and J Miner. 2002. Temperate zone fens of the glaciated mid-western USA. Wetlands 22: 301-317.

Week 4 (2/6)
Jolly ~ Cole, CA & RT Brooks. 2000. Patterns of wetland hydrology in the ridge and valley province, Pennsylvania, USA.  Wetlands 20: 438-447.
Clark ~ Flynn, KM, IA Mendelssohn & BJ Wilsey. 1999.  The effect of water level management on the soils and vegetation of two coastal Louisiana marshes.  Wetlands Ecology & Management 7: 193-218.

Week 5 (2/13)
Gucker ~ Miao, SF, PV McCormick, S Newman & S Rajagopalan. 2001.  Interactive effects of seed availability, water depth and phosphorus enrichment on cattail colonization in an Everglades wetland.  Wetlands Ecology & Management 9: 39-47.
Dungan ~ Woo, I and JB Zedler. 2002. Can nutrients alone shift a sedge meadow towards dominance by the invasive Typha X GlaucaWetlands 22: 508-521.

Week 6 (2/20)
Jimenez ~ Baldwin, AH et al. 2002.  Hydrologic change and vegetation of tidal freshwater marshes: field, greenhouse and seed-bank experiments.  Wetlands 21: 519-531.

Week 7 (2/27)
Bellon ~ Drexler, JZ and BL Bedford. 2002.  Pathways of nutrient loading and impacts on plant diversity in a New York Peatland.  Wetlands 22: 263-281.
Kemper ~ Brooks, RT. 2000.  Annual and seasonal variation and the effects of hydroperiod on benthic macroinvertebrates of seasonal forest ponds in Central Massachusetts, USA.  Wetlands 20: 707-715.

Week 8 (3/6)
Blandford ~Turner, S.D. et al. 2000.  Mycorrhizal fungi associated with plants in ground-water fed wetlands.  Wetlands 20: 200-204
Bertram ~ Rossell, CR & IM Rossell. 1999.  Microhabitat selection by small mammals in a southern Appalachian fen.  Wetlands Ecology & Management 7: 219-224.

Week 9 (3/13)
Baden ~ Fransworth, EJ and DR Ellis. 2001.  Is purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) an invasive threat to freshwater wetlands? Conflicting evidence from several ecological metrics.  Wetlands 21: 199-209.
Broglio ~ Johnson, WC, TL Sharik et al. 1987.  Nature and cause of zonation discreteness around glacial prairie marshes.  Canadian Journal of Botany 65: 1622-1632.

Week 10 (3/28)
Borntraeger ~ Seabloom, EW, KA Moloney and AG Van der Valk. 2001.  Constraints on the establishment of plants along a fluctuating water-depth gradient.  Ecology 82: 2216-2232.
Cusack ~ Batzer, DP 1998.  Trophic interactions among detritus, benthic midges and predatory fish in a freshwater marsh.  Ecology 79: 1688-1698.

Week 11 (4/3)
Gloyn ~ Joyal, LA, M McCollough and ML Hunter. 2001.  Landscape ecology approaches to wetland species conservation: a case study of two turtle species in Southern Maine.  Conservation Biology 15: 1755-1762.
Heyn ~ Gunness, MA RG Clark and PJ Weatherhead. 2001.  Counterintuitive parental investment by female dabbling ducks in response to variable habitat quality.  Ecology 82: 1151-1158.
Larson ~ Wissinger, SA, HH Whiteman et al. 1999.  Foraging trade-offs along a predator-permanence gradient in subalpine wetlands.  Ecology 80:2102-2116. 

Week 12 (4/10)
McKenny ~ Smith, DW, RO Peterson. 1991.  Behavior of beaver in lakes with varying water levels in northern Minnesota.  Environmental Management 15: 395-401.
Miller, S ~ Whiles, MR and BS Goldowitz. 2001.  Hydrologic influences on insect emergence production from central Platte River wetlands.  Ecological Applications 11: 1829-1842.
McClymonds ~ Post, DM, JP Taylor et al. 1998.  The role of migratory waterfowl as nutrien vectors in a managed wetland. Conservation Biology 12: 910-920.

Week 13 (4/17)
Miller, R. ~ Corder, LD, FMR Hughes and M Getty. 1997. Factors affecting the regeneration and distribution of riparian woodlands along a northern prairie river: the Red Deer River, Alberta. J. of Biogeography 24: 675-95.
Moticak ~ Johnson, W.C. 1994.  Woodland Expansion in the Platte River, Nebraska: Patterns and Causes.  Ecological Monographs 64: 45-84.

Week 14 (4/25)
Nafus ~Mahoney, JM and SB Rood. 1998.  Streamflow requirements for cottonwood seedling recruitment ~ an integrative model. Wetlands 18: 634-645.
Swan ~ Amlin , NM & SB Rood. 2002.  Comparative tolerances of riparian willows and cottonwoods to water-table decline. Wetlands 22: 338-346. 

Week 15 (5/1)
Schaffer ~ Stevenson, RJ & FR Hauer. 2002.  Integrating hydrogeomorphic and index of biotic integrity approaches for environmental assessment of wetlands.  J. of the N. Amer. Benthological Soc. 21: 502-513. 
Ulrich ~ Hauer, R & RD Smith. 1998.  The hydrogeomorphic approach to functional assessment of riparian wetlands: evaluating impacts and mitigation on river floodplains in the USA.  Freshwater Biology 40: 517-530.