User:CatherineKailua/sandbox

Proxy (climate) article notes:

• Examples- ice cores, tree rings, corals, etc.
• Allow scientist to determine past climate conditions from before the beginning of reliable records.
• Must compare the data found from different proxies in order to be sure the data gathered is accurate
• Evaluations:
  1. 'Fossil leaves' section is very short and has only one source that the data is collected from.
  2. All sources are from Journals and published work of university researchers. Do not seem to be biased.
  3. Many of the sources are from publications that are now well over 10 years old.
  4. Page is not locked- anyone can edit it. This could allow for some people to abuse the privilege to make an edit to the page based on this topics close to link to climate change, perhaps by writing with biased information to show their opinion.

Climate research section critique

While this article does do well with giving a broad overview of the current research on the effects climate change has on corals it gives no description or direct reference to what a proxy is, only someone with previous knowledge as to the definition of a proxy would be able to make the connection that corals are in fact being used as a proxy. To improve this a simple sentence in the first paragraph describing a proxy, and stating that coral is one within climate research, would help people understand. Secondly, simply adding in a diagram or picture of how the growth rings in coral worth similarly to the rings in a tree would add a visual element to possibly describe how this works better. This does cover the idea of checking the data recovered from the proxy (in this case coral) with data from other sources in order to ensure the data is accurate and reliable. The idea that this proxy has a huge strength because it is very useful to get data about the earths atmosphere from before data was being recorded by humans is also touched on. Not many weaknesses of the proxy method are touched on, but if the word itself was to be introduced as recommended it could be linked to the separate proxy article which would go more in depth about the strengths and weaknesses of the overall method.

The peer reviewed articles used as references within this article are very accurate and have a lot of very good information in regards to what this article is about however all of them are over 10 years old. Lots of new research has since come out with lots of opportunity for new things to be added to this article. For example I found an article published in 2011 titled 'Projecting Coral Reef Futures Under Global Warming and Ocean Acidification' that is not used in the Wikipedia article. This article describes in detail what coral shows the previous climate patterns to be and how the coral is being directly effected by global warming and what we expect to see if current rates continue. A second article I found titled 'Improved Water Quality Can Ameliorate Effects of Climate Change in Corals' and is from 2009. This article is not used in this Wikipedia page but discusses the optimal water conditions for coral that allow them to flourish and the current water conditions that are causing them to die. It also describes how by locally managing the water conditions we could perhaps preserve the coral far better then we currently are.