The article “Risk analysis reveals global hotspots for marine debris ingestion by sea turtles” by Schuyler, Qamar A. et al. is about the global marine plastic distributions and sea turtle habitat. They are trying to predict how much exposure sea turtles will get to plastic pollution. They took sea turtles that had died and measured all the possible issues that exposure to plastics could have on sea turtles. The scientists also modelled what risks ingestion of debris could have on turtles depending on the age, life history and what type of turtle consumed the plastics. According to Schuyler et al., “The regions of highest risk to global sea turtle populations are off the east coasts of the USA, Australia and South Africa; the east Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia”. They have calculated that as much as 52% of sea turtles have ingested debris in the oceans.

The topic of this article is about where in the world sea turtles are at the most risk for marine debris ingestion.

The type of data needed to answer this question are acts, behaviors or events. The data collection method that was used is detached observations. The scientists also used the turtles for research along with observing their behaviors and where they live. The data analysis method was quantitative data, this is because they counted the sea turtles and found percentages and amounts of plastic in sea turtles.

I thought that this research article was very interesting and it made me want to focus my research on these hot spots of plastic pollutions to turtles. It made me ask more question about possibly what age are turtles affected the most and I didn’t even think that different species of turtles could be affected in different ways. I thought that it was very honest and non-bias and brought many good point to attention. One thing that I found particularly interesting is that loggerhead turtles have a higher probability of ingesting debris than other species.

Schuyler, Qamar A., Chris Wilcox, Kathy A. Townsend, Kathryn R. Wedemeyer-Strombel,, George Balazs, Erik Van Sebille, and Britta Denise Hardesty. “Risk Analysis Reveals Global Hotspots for Marine Debris Ingestion by Sea Turtles.” Citation Finder. Global Change Biology, Feb. 2016. Web. 19 Feb. 2017. <http://np9fq3va3u.search.serialssolutions.com/?genre=article&issn=13541013&title=Global%2BChange%2BBiology&volume=22&issue=2&date=20160201&atitle=Risk%2Banalysis%2Breveals%2Bglobal%2Bhotspots%2Bfor%2Bmarine%2Bdebris%2Bingestion%2Bby%2Bsea%2Bturtles.&spage=567&pages=567-576&sid=EBSCO%3AGreenFILE&au=Schuyler%2C%2BQamar%2BA.>.

In the article Climate Change and Sex Determination by Stephanie J. Kamel she talks about how the warming temperatures can affect sea turtles. Sea turtles are very sensitive reptiles and the temperature, location and when they are born is very important. These factors determine what sex the turtle is. During the middle part of a turtle’s incubation is when the sex of the turtle is determined. This all depends on the temperature of the egg at that time. If the temperature is higher, then the turtle will be female and if the temperature is lower, then the turtle will be male. Scientists are worried that if the temperatures get too high there will be less and less male turtles that are being reproduced. The topic of this article was about climate change and the determination of sex for sea turtles. The research question being answered in this article was, how will climate change effect the outcome of the sex of turtles? The data collection method used in this article was acts, behaviors and events. The method of analysis was quantitative data because the scientists were dealing with the numbers of turtles that were female vs. male.

I thought this article was very well written and was scientific with no bias opinions in the article. The author also made it easy enough to understand so that you did not need to have a science background to read it. I thought it was very interesting that the sex of the turtles is determined by the temperature of the egg at that incubation period.

Kamel, Stephanie J. “Verification Required.” Armacost Library. N.p., 2008. Web. 12 Feb. 2017. <http://0-www.accessscience.com.books.redlands.edu/content/climate-change-and-sex-determination/YB081550>.

The article Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise by Robert M. DeConto and David Pollard is about the ice caps in Antarctica melting at a rapid rate. The extensive ice shelves in the Ross and Weddell Seas are about 1km thick at the grounding line and around a few hundred meters thick near the calving front. These ice sheets are eroding fast due to the oceans warming. The oceans are warming at rates faster than 10 meters per year. These ice shelves are also effected by atmospheric warming, causing meltwater on the ice-shelf surfaces which leads to thinning of the ice because of percolation. The Antarctica ice sheets are melting rapidly causing habitat loss to many species.

The question the authors are asking in this article is, will atmospheric warming soon become the dominant driver of ice loss? To collect the data the scientists used a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics which would be reports of acts and behaviors. The data analysis method is interval and ratio data. This research article was well written and easy enough for anyone to understand. The authors did a good job covering all the different ways that climate change is effecting the Antarctic ice sheets and there were no bias opinions. I found this research article very interesting but the part that stood out to me the most is how fast the sea ice is melting. This has so many effects of animals and organisms but it also affects us as humans because the more ice that melts, the more the sea level will rise.

The article From Sea to Sea written by Susan L. Williams is about the genome sequence of the marine flowering plant eelgrass and how it evolved to a terrestrial specie and back to a marine specie.  Eelgrass is part of the seagrass family and is known to highly specialized and sexually reproductive. Eelgrass has gone through many major habitat shifts. It started as marine green algae and then evolved to a terrestrial flowering plant, then the angiosperms entered freshwater and formed eelgrass and a few other seagrass species. Seagrasses are not widely studied and usually are ignored by biologists. Eelgrass is a very important because it supports many different species and organisms, especially endangered sea otters. The root systems on eelgrasses are very important because they help stabilize sediments and shorelines. This seagrass specie has many different uses. In Mexico man cultures rely on the grass and in Europe they use eelgrass to stuff furniture and to insulate homes. Eelgrass is very adaptable, it has grown under sea ice, and in the warm temperatures of Baja California. This amazing ability to adapt might be crucial to the survival for eelgrass with the warming climates and the oceans becoming more acidic.

The question that is being answered in this article is how eelgrass evolved and to gain a better understanding of the plants evolution. The author used expert analysis to gather data on the genome of eelgrass and the data method analysis is quantitative.

This research article was well written and easy enough for anyone to understand. The author did a good job covering all the transitions eelgrass went through and there were no bias opinions.

I found it very interesting that a plant species could start as marine algae, evolve into a terrestrial plant and then evolve back to a marine seagrass.