FYEC177 Fall 2008 Fish Life History Assignment Due: September 25 (individual written report) Readings: Park et al.

2003 Introduction The purposes of this assignment are to 1) develop a detailed list of facts about fish life histories in the Yangtze that we will have to gather this semester, 2) help you learn a bunch of vocabulary that you will be using all year. You will turn in a word-processed hardcopy of your answers. Read This Paragraph to Make Your Life Easier Park et al. (2003) spend a lot of time describing a Self-Organizing Model (SOM); in fact, most of the Methods and Results are devoted to discussing the SOM. You will find these sections really, really confusing. Thankfully, although so much of the paper is devoted to explaining the SOM, it turns out that the SOM really isnt that important. All the SOM did was predict where each species would be present (i.e., which tributaries it was likely to inhabit). Park et al. (2003) needed this information because nobody has electrofished every tributary, and so nobody is really sure about the exact distribution of each species. So, Park et al. (2003) used the SOM to predict where each species was probably living now. The bottom line is this: you can ignore all the SOM stuff. Skip the entire sub-section of Methods called Modeling Procedure (just know that they are describing how they used an SOM to predict the distribution of the 44 species they were interested in). Skip most of Results, but start reading near the bottom of page 1754 at the paragraph that starts, Using a qualitative dichotomous Keep in mind that this is where they start describing the probability (based on the SOM) that each species actually inhabits a specific tributary. You will see that they use this information to help decide which tributaries offer potential refuge habitat for each species. The Assignment Write a comprehensive yet succinct answer for each of the following questions. Refer to Hacker to be sure that you properly prepare yourself to read and write well (Hacker Section C), and that your sentences are complete (Section S) with proper punctuation (Section P). If your basic grammar is weak, review Section B. In all cases, support your answer with information taken directly from the reading (See Hacker Section A2 for help), and list the page number from Park et al. (2003) where that info can be found. As always, never use direct quotes in science writing. 1) Park et al. (2003) report that 162 fish species inhabit the Yangtze mainstem upstream of Three Gorges Dam (TGD) but provide a detailed analysis focused on just 44 species. Why did they focus on these species, and do you think that we should take the same approach in our analysis? Support your recommendation with specific facts from the reading. 2) Park et al. (2003) conclude that just a few tributaries to the maintem can serve as potential refuge habitat for mainstem species affected by TGD (these tributaries are indicated by a dashed line surrounding them in Figure 1 of Park et al. (2003)). Park et al. (2003) used three criteria to decide that these tributaries were the best available refuge habitat. Describe each

of the three criteria, and report why Park et al. (2003) concluded that these tributaries met each criterion. 3) Based on the type of information found in Park et al. (2003), make a detailed list of all the information we would need in order to fully describe the fish in the Yangtze basin. Im not asking you to actually get the information you list, but simple to list what information we need. Produce your work in the form of a bulleted list that is similar in format to the previous lists that we have generated. As you read, you should become familiar with the definitions of the following words. You may need to Google or Wiki them to get full definitions. Ill be using these words in class, you will be seeing them in future readings, and I expect that you will learn and use them during class discussions and in your written reports. You do not have to turn in definitions as part of this assignment. Anthropogenic Endemic Species richness Indicator species Taxon/Taxonomy Reserves/refuges (as pertaining to conservation)

Grading This assignment is worth 2% of your semester grade (well be doing 5 similar assignments that in total count for 10% of your grade). Your grade will depend both on the quality of your answers (to demonstrate your mastery of the material) and the quality of your writing. Remember: you are not writing this for me (I am not your audience). You are writing your answers to explain this stuff to an intelligent person who has not done the readings. I will use the attached sheets when grading your work. Academic integrity: This is an individual assignment. Prior to when you start writing the assignment, you may discuss the content of it with anyone in the class. But, when you actually start the writing process, you must do it absolutely individually. Sharing any written information with anyone in the class will be a violation of the Code of Academic Integrity. If you have any doubt about what is permissible, contact me.

Written Report Evaluation: content Student: Report topic: CONTENT CRITERIA Lack of effort (F) Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Overall ____ ____ ____ ____ RATING* Right topic (C) ____ ____ ____ ____ Reviewer:

Wrong topic (D) ____ ____ ____ ____

Right answer Right answer+ (B) (A) ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

* Rating descriptions: Lack of effort Assignment turned in but no indication that serious effort was made to understand the material. Wrong topic When answering the question, student did not make reference to the correct material found in the reading. Right topic Student correctly identified the pertinent material in the reading, but misapplied it when answering the question. Right answer Student correctly identified the pertinent material in the reading, and applied correctly it when answering the question. Right answer + Student correctly identified the pertinent material in the reading, and applied correctly it when answering the question. Answer was unusually complete, well-thought out, and clearly presented. Overall Comments:

Written Report Evaluation: writing quality WRITING CRITERIA* Lack of effort (F) Paragraph structure Sentence structure Grammar Spelling Overall ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ RATING (points) Basic errors On target Very Good (D) (C) (B) ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

Unbelievable! (A) ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

*Criteria descriptions: Paragraph structure: Each paragraph limited to a single topic. A clear topic sentence present. Logical ordering of information within each paragraph. Sentence structure: All sentences complete. Sentences concise and obviously edited to convey information efficiently and effectively. Grammar: Proper use of nouns, verbs, phrases, conjunctions, etc. Punctuation correct. Spelling: Absolutely no misspelled words, including technical jargon, scientific names, etc. Comments on writing: