User:Micallen0713/sandbox

*so I discovered that I have been putting all of my information in the wrong spot... I was writing everything in the Talk section, not the sandbox.*

Article Evaluation

Topic: Integrated geography

Overall view: The article was alright. Nothing was surprising or outstanding about the article. It provided a fair amount of information but, it was out of date. There were few references of which were all credible. The page itself could use a bit of a make over in the sense that it is very out of date and it needs to be rearranged and better organized. It was a very neutral article and the topic I personally felt was very underrepresented. The citations were reliable, and I did fact check some of them and they all seem to come out with the same information. My overall major change would be re-evaluating the definition of integrated geography and trying to give it a stronger definition with more examples that support the definition while also providing a firm understanding of what this topic is about. The links do work and I believe that the article is not bias in any was.

Link to Article: Integrated geography

Finding an Article

Topic #1: Geoarchaeology

The reason i chose this topic is because it relates to my majors and minors. I am in Geography and Environmental studies with minors in History and Archaeology. I thought it would be nice to read up on what the Wiki community had to say about geoarchaeology. This article was alright. It provided a bit of information on the topic and gave some examples of that the topic exactly is and the history behind it. The article did not have many citations but I did check the citations and they are all credible. The article is a very neutral article that focuses on the different parts of geoarchaeology and makes some very interesting points on what geoarcaeology is.

Topic #2: Extreme Environment

The reason that I chose this topic is because I find things like extreme habitats in different extreme climates and conditions very interesting. There are a lot of different species that can survive in some of the craziest places and I think it is very interesting trying to understand how these species interact with their environment around them. The reason that I may chose this article is due to the fact that there is so much information that you could add to this topic, but it seems like nobody has event tried. There are some pictures and some quick facts and a brief description of what this article is about, but other then that, there really isn't any true content that could actually allow for any true further knowledge to be obtained. There are very few citations found int his article and I believe that it has a lot of potential to be better and also more informative.

Topic #3: Thundersnow

There is a fair amount of information for this article. There are diagrams and there is also more than 5 credible sources. This article could use a bit of updating but I found that for not knowing any information about this topic before I read it, I feel like a have a good general idea of what this article is about. I think there is an opportunity for more input in the sense of giving examples of when thundersnow takes place. I personally would find it a lot more interesting if they were telling you more about the case studies that were formed around this topic. There are some cool graphics that show interesting details on how the Thundersnow is formed and where it happens. I think graphics should be used more when explaining certain things like climate because it makes it a lot easier to visualize what is going on without trying to picture it yourself. Especially if you have never seen something like that before.

Topic #4: Ecological Trap

When I first chose this article, I thought there would be a lot of information on this. Once I started reading, I noticed that there was hardly any information at all. This either suggests that their is not enough research going into this topic, it is not a well known concept, or nobody has taken the time to fill out this article. I think I may do this idea as my topic due to how interesting I find it. There are a few references to other topics that we have talked about in class but other then that, it is a very bare article. The few citations that this article provides are very good though. They are all very credible and make sense. This is not a bias article at all either and it all describes the topic in an alright amount of detail. This article also has so much potential in the sense that there is a lot of information that can be put into the article still and it can also be updated with more relevant information for the readers.

Topic #5: Evolutionary Ecology

The reason that I chose this topic is because it is so well done. There are so many interesting topics that this article covers and it talks about all of the related fields that are close or related to the main topic. There are many pictures and lots of diagrams that also help people walk through what this article is representing and talking about. I think I will be referring back to this article throughout this assignment because I really like the set up and it is very well organized. There are many aspects in this article alone that I believe take advantage of the different tools that Wiki allows us to use.

Add a Citation

Topic: Volcanic Activity in Hawaii

This citation is in reference to the volcanic activity in Hawaii due to the different chain of events that take place because of the volcanic chain that the volcanoes are apart of. It was very easy to insert the citation. I did not experience any problems with it.

Copy edit

Topic: Extreme Environments

Original: An extreme environment contains conditions that are hard to survive for most known life forms. These conditions may be extremely high or low temperatureor pressure; high or low content of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; high levels of radiation, acidity, or alkalinity; absence of water; water containing a high concentration of salt or sugar; presence of sulphur, petroleum, and other toxic substances.

New: An extreme environment is a habitat that is considered very hard to survive in due to its considerably extreme conditions such as temperature, accessibility to different energy sources or under high pressure. Pressure conditions may be extremely high or low; high or low content of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; high levels of radiation, acidity, or alkalinity; absence of water; water containing a high concentration of salt or sugar; the presence of sulphur, petroleum, and other toxic substances.

Finalizing Topic

Topic: Extreme Environment

The reason that I went with this topic is because of the lack of information there is for it alone. In class we talk about the different interactions within the environment and I feel like this article provides a fair amount of opportunity to expand and also use the information that we have been taught in class to apply it to a real life setting such as this one. It is very interesting also and has a lot of cool aspects that I know I will be able to expand on and also learn more about. There is also enough journals and papers published about this topic that can provide me a good amount of reliable detail and information. There is also I feel a need for a clarification on Extreme Environments, especially due to the fact that the climate is changing so much around the world, this allows for different extreme environments to appear more around the world.

Peer Review

Peer Review #1: Maliks10

I like how you describe what exactly the Rosa Rugosa is and where it comes from. You also go into a great amount of detail in discussing the looks of the plant. The description of the plant is also very good and direct. You do not go into any extra unnecessary detail and you are straight to the point. You are very good at not going into any extra detail. It is very straight and to the point which makes it very easy for the reader to find what information they are looking for. You go through the history of the plant and why it is considered invasive. Overall, I believe that you are on the right track with the right idea. There aren't any grammatical errors that I can spot right off the bat. Good job!   

Peer Review #2: Polidoroal

Your part on urbanization is very well written. You have very good sources and you make references to many different articles which is really good. Your sentence structure is good and you also provide a lot of detail on the consequences of sudden influxes in groundwater recharge. You make a lot of good points and you also keep the information short and to the point which is very good for the readers. It allows readers to get all the information they need without having to read extra facts or useless details. Overall, very good job.

Response to Peer Review

Who peer reviewed me:

Epipelagic (talk)

What did they say:

I like your diagram on the tree of life. Well done!

My response:

Thank you for your comment! My goal was to try to depict it as best as possible so it makes it easy for people to understand.

Reflective Essay

Introduction

During the last four months, our third year EnviroSci 3B03: Global Change, Ecosystems, and Earth Systems at McMaster University. Our focus was to find a Wikipedia article that we could relate back to the course and also add more information to. Over the 14 week we were given a series of different tasks to complete and finish before certain dead lines. I personally did not find this enjoyable because it was hard to keep on track and do tasks that were only worth one mark every week because I have so many other things going on but I digress. The topic that I chose was Extreme Environments and the reason that I chose this as my topic is because there was so little information about it. It is also a very interesting topic to review and I enjoyed learning more about it and writing about it.

Critiquing Articles

While reviewing different articles that my fellow classmates have written, I noticed that everyone has a different sense of writing style. This is one of the things that I think is very important when looking at Wikipedia; everyone has their own sense of style and that is what makes Wiki so different from all the other types of encyclopedias. When looking at the different articles that my fellow classmates wrote, I focused on not only their writing style but also how they portrayed the topic and the kind of information that they provided. Overall, from all the articles that I have looked at, they are all very well written and all of their information is very well stated for anyone who does not have any background in the topic will be able to understand. I also tried to keep a very open mind when looking at the articles because I did not know about some of the topics that people wrote about so it was interesting learning about the new topics that people have decided to write about. For my own article, I wanted to add more detail in the different habitats that are considered to be Extreme Environments. The reason I chose to do this is because I personally wanted to learn more about what makes an environment extreme. I also wanted to add to the introduction a bit more because I felt like the topic was not well represented when I first read the previous introduction in the article.

Summarizing Your Contributions

I chose to not only adjust the older information but also add more of my own information. The reason why I wanted to adjust some of the older information in the articles is because I felt like it did not provide good description of what extreme environments actually are. I do believe that they are very valuable additions to the current article. I feel like my additions add a lot to the articles and that the new information provides a better understanding and description of what an Extreme Environment actually is. I also removed a few things that I felt were not very retentive to the article that the previous editor had made. Before I added my new additions to the article, I feel like the article was lacking a lot of information about the topic and due to my additions, I feel like people are able to have a better understanding of what Extreme Environments are.

Peer Review

I did not get any peer reviews on my article. I did get my housemate to look it over and he suggested a few changes. A lot of my reviews for other people were stating things like fixing some of the sentence structure and maybe some grammar errors. I also thought that for my article, I should try to make it as easy to read as possible. I want to have a few pictures and provide some quick information that is peer reviewed. I believe that my article is very accessible for anyone that would be able to read or gain information from.

Feedback

For my article, I did not receive any feedback from my peers. If I did, I would start by thanking them and responding to any questions if they have any. I would also go through their feedback and see what i could change if it was needed or not. I would also look through all of the different types of feedback and see where there is common themes if people have the same opinions of certain aspects about my article.

Wikipedia Generally

After working throughout the semester with Wikipedia, I realized that I really did not like this assignment at all. I appreciate and respect anyone who has the time to work on an article every week and that maintains articles. I personally feel like I have learned things about Extreme Environments but nothing regarding the course. This was one of the simplest, hardest assignments that I think I have ever done due to the fact that I work three jobs and also go to school full time and having an assignment that requires me to log on once a week and complete an assignment that I do not have much time for is very annoying to me. I hope to never do an assignment like this again in the past. If I were to do an assignment like this again, I feel like we should just have one hand in date. That way people can work on this assignment at their own pace and if people have a very busy week or they work a lot during the week and do not have time to work on certain aspects of this assignment, they are able to finish it before the due date without worrying about loosing little marks. I do not think that this assignment was productive or at all improving to my life. The only part I liked about this assignment is that it was cool that I was able to put my opinion into a Wiki article for the world to read. I do not think that it has really contributed to my understanding of my field but I was able to gain a better understanding of what an Extreme Environment. This is important because it allowed me to find interest in a new topic that is not always discussed in detail in some of our classes at McMaster University so it is nice to find out more about this topic. Overall, I really did not like this assignment and I feel like we could have done a completely different assignment that would have taught us more about Earth Systems and interactions between different ecosystems.

Extreme Environments

Introduction

An extreme environment is a habitat that is considered very hard to survive en due to its considerably extreme conditions such as temperature, accessibility to different energy sources or under high pressure. For an area to be considered an extreme environment, it must contain certain conditions and aspects that are considered very hard for other life forms to survive. Pressure conditions may be extremely high or low; high or low content of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; high levels of radiation, acidity, or alkalinity; absence of water; water containing a high concentration of salt or sugar; the presence of sulphur, petroleum, and other toxic substances.

Habitats

Many different habitats can be considered extreme environments, such as the polar ice caps, the driest spots in desserts, and abysmal depths in the ocean. Many different places on the Earth demand that species become highly specialized if they are to survive. In particular, microscopic organisms that can't be seen with the naked eye often thrive in surprising places.

Polar Regions

Due to the dangerously low temperatures, the amount of species that can survive in the these remote areas is very slim. Over years of evolution and adaptation to this extremely cold environment, both microscopic and larger species have survived and thrived no matter what conditions they are faced. By changing their eating patterns and due to their dense pelt or their body fat, only a few species have been capable of adapting to such harsh conditions and have learned how the thrive in these cold environments.

Deserts

A desert is known for its extreme temperatures and extremely dry climate. The type of species that reside in this area have adapted to these harsh conditions over years and years. Species that are able to sore water and have learned how to protect themselves from the suns harsh rays are the only ones who are capable of surviving in these extreme environments.

Oceans

The oceans depths and temperatures contains some of the most extreme conditions for any species to survive. The deeper one travels, the higher the pressure and the lower the visibility gets, causing completely blacked out conditions. Many of these conditions are too intense for humans to travel to, so instead of sending humans down to these depths to collect research, scientists are using smaller submarines or deep sea drones to study these creatures and extreme environments.

Types of Species that live in Extreme Environments

There are many different species that are either commonly known or not known amongst many people. These species have either adapted over time into these extreme environments or they have resided their entire life no matter how many generations. The different species that are able to live in these environments because of their flexibility with adaptation. Many can adapt to different climate conditions and hibernate if need be to survive.

The following list contains only a few species that live in extreme environments.

The origin of each species.

Different Types of Species

• Euophrys omnisuperstes
  • Himalayan Jumping Spider
• Giant kangaroo rat
• Alvinella pompejana
  • Thermo-tolerant Worms
• Greenland shark
• Halicephalobus mephisto
  • Devil Worms
• Certain species of frogs
• Marine microorganism
• Bdelloidea
• Cockroach
• Tardigrade
  • Waterbear

Types of Extreme Environments

fixed the title

Examples of Extreme Environments

• Antarctica
• Dead Sea
• Mammoth Hot Springs
• Mariana Trench
• Mono Lake
• Mount Everest
• Sahara

Also see

• habitat
• species