How did eradication of Rinderpest from East Africa increase both the tree and giraffe populations in the Serengeti?

Assignment: SCI115 Week10 Discussion-STR

Post your original “primary post” of at least 125 words for one of the following three bulleted items. Also, reply to a fellow student on any topic

Topic 1. Trophic Cascades in theSerengeti. Watch Dr. Cox’s video (1) on “What Rinderpest eradication taught us about the Serengeti”, which can be found in the Instructor Insights folder for this week. Then address the following questions: (a) How did eradication of Rinderpest from East Africa increase both the tree and giraffe populations in the Serengeti? (b) How did eradication of Rinderpest from East Africa increase the population of predator species in the Serengeti? (c) What does this tell us about ecosystems?

Topic 2. Shrinking Red Knots. Read two of three articls (2) (3) (4) about the effects of artic warming on a migratory bird known as the red knot. Then, address the following issues: (a) In your own words summarize the basic story that the articles have in common; (b) of the two articles you read, which of them do you prefer? Why?

Topic 3. Biomes. The term “biome” is described in the textbook. For this topic, describe the biome where you grew up (or where you currently live). Identify your location, the biome of the region, and describe the major characteristics of that biome. Add enough detail and commentary from your own experience, so that your answer is 125 words or more. If you’re really ambitious, you could consider looking up the “ecoregion”. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains information about that.

References.

James Cox, August 31, 2017, What Rinderpest eradication taught us about the Serengeti. https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/956951/uiconf_id/38285871/entry_id/0_922iecgu/embed/dynamic
Helen Briggs, May 13, 2016, Shrinking bird pays the bill for Arctic warming, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36266692
Joseph Dussault, May 12, 2016, Climate change chould be shrinking these arctic birds, http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0512/Climate-change-could-be-shrinking-these-Arctic-birds
Carl Zimmer, May 12, 2016, Climate change and the case of the shrinking red knots, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/science/climate-change-bird-red-knots.html?_r=0

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.