Influence of recent bark beetle outbreak on fire severity and postfire tree regeneration in montane Douglas-fir forests

Brian J. Harvey, Daniel C. Donato, William H. Romme, and Monica G. Turner

This study was conducted to asses the impact bark beetles has on wildfires and how quickly they spread along with tree regeneration after the fire had occurred. These researchers looked at the Gunbarrel fire of 2008, which took out 27,000 hectares of Douglas-fir (pseudotsuga menzeisii) dominant wilderness. This area experienced a bark beetle outbreak 4-13 years before the fire occurred and the majority of the trees were dead or dying with their needles dropped. There were 85 plots sampled for stand structure pre-fire and severity of bark beetle outbreak. It was found that fire severity was directly correlated with topography and burning conditions. Regeneration of Douglas-firs after the fire was low with no tree seedlings in 65% of plots. Tree seedlings were abundant in plots with low fire severity that also had low outbreaks of bark beetles. There is no link between the severity of burn and outbreak of bark beetles, but together they have high disturbance level.

To answer these questions about Douglas-fir populations in lower mountainous regions, researchers had to use reports of acts, behaviors, and events because they are looking at the behaviors of species in relation to a disease and fire.

To conduct this study, 85 plots were sampled in the mid Rocky mountain eco-region. Plot samples began in 1995 to measure bark beetle outbreaks and peaked in the early 2000’s. Most trees (98.5%) were killed by bark beetles before the fire began. To sample plots, bark was tested from every tree taller than 1.4 m and analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation test between each quantitative metric of fire severity and beetle-killed area in all plots.

Harvey, Brian J., et al. “Influence of recent bark beetle outbreak on fire severity and postfire tree regeneration in montane Douglas‐fir forests.” Ecology 94.11 (2013): 2475-2486.

The article titled, The Economic Impact of Ocean Acidification on Shellfish Production in Europe, is unique in the sense that very little research has been done regarding economic impacts of ocean acidification. Given that all shelled marine organisms and coral reefs are dependent on calcium carbonate, used to form their hard surfaces, which is depleted by carbonic acid it is imperative to start looking at the economic effects on the seafood industry as well as the tourism industry. Europe and its nearby regions are significant producers of mollusks and in this case, economic data from mollusk fisheries needed to be obtained and analyzed to determine any economic downfalls that correspond with the beginning of the significant rise in the ocean’s acidity. They chose to perform a partial-equilibrium analysis to determine the highest levels of overall impact. They determined that the countries with the highest production rates, France, Italy and Spain, are being impacted the greatest. That being said, it was also noted that the distribution of impact is rather uneven across countries, with the most affected areas being those along the Atlantic coast of France which is a region of great importance for oyster production. Their economic analysis led them to determine that the annual impact will be over 1 billion USD in 2100 for Europe as a whole, which is extremely significant. This research is both substantial and well done, and will hopefully demonstrate to others in the field that economic analysis is crucial to getting corporations to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Ocean acidification is a severe issue that is rarely discussed when talking about climate change, and I hope that readers will consider the ways in which their consumption habits are producing carbon dioxide and acknowledge that it is taking a severe toll on our oceans and the marine life that many depend on for sustenance. 

Narita, Daju, Rehdanz, Katrin, The Economic Impact of Ocean Acidification on Shellfish Production in Europe. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, pp 500-518. 

In the article Measures of Social and Emotional Skills for Children and Young People: A Systematic Review, the authors are trying to see the different skills that children and young people have using a systematic review. The authors describe the different social and emotional skills, which could be seen as a combination of social and emotional intelligence, emotional literacy, and social and emotional competence. The authors then began to set up the systematic review process, which contained six stages. Stage one and two relate to the identification of different measures, which could be terms or key words that have to do with social or emotional skills. Stage three resulted in reading a specific abstract and then creating a inclusion and exclusion criteria based off what the authors could use. Stages four and five resulted in the finding of more articles and filtering them out to only use the most needed material. The last stage, stage six, is the final examination of all the final measures. There were some limitations to the systematic process, with one limitation being that there are many different interpretations to social and emotional skills, so agreeing of a common definition can be difficult. However, the most important part of the study is finding the precise keywords and the precise question to get the specific results needed for the study. This article shows many emotional and social skills that could be relevant to looking at graduation rate, as some skills could be linked to success in school.

Humphrey, Neil, Afroditi Kalambouka, Michael Wigelsworth, Ann Lendrum, Jessica Deighton, and Uganda Wolpert. “Measures of Social and Emotional Skills for Children and Young People: A Systematic Review.” Educational and Psychological Measurement Volume 71 no. 4 (2011):617-637.

“Democratizing Primary Spiritual Experience-Around the Year 2000” by Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. asked why entheogen’s, a psychoactive substance that is primarily used in a religious or spiritual context, offer religions? The article states that the application is not simply ‘dropping acid’ rather they are developed in a manner that paralleled medical research practices. The research required demographic data to obtain a firmer understanding of psychoactive drugs and the cultures surrounding their religious use. In order to achieve his goal the author performed experiments using experience’s as they present themselves to consciousness.  The author analyzed this data using quantitative analysis.  I believe that the research provided a unique insight into our religion and its subjectivity in part due to varying mental faculties. These experiments despite subjectivity yielded incredible results including that 1/3 of all participants in the experiments experienced on of the five most meaningful experiences of their life. In addition, psilocybin mushrooms increased participant’s altruism and senses of well-being. The issue that I found with the research methodology is that it failed to examine the cultural aspect of regions that use psychoactive drugs to experience spirituality. For instance, drugs like Ayahuasca are conducted in large spiritual ceremonies which last several hours, with little frequency and are often heavily emotionally taxing. The areas of the research that I found myself most interested in are the fields like drug induced contemplation, and his deep analysis of religious texts that observe various levels of religious understanding the deepest being one’s primary religious experience. This claim argues that even though primary experience provides a deeper understanding they also do not dilute the importance of habitual religious activity.

Roberts, Thomas. Democratizing Primary Spiritual Experience-Around the Year 2000” Association for Transpersonal Psychology 48. 1 (2016): 28-32.

In the article “Understanding Transgender Identity Development in Childhood and Adolescence”, Dr. Boskey argues for the inclusion of gender identity topics in U.S sex education curriculum and provides different manners in which trans issues could be incorporated into current sex education standards. Although some states in the U.S, including California, now include conversations about sexuality in a positive light, while others mention sexuality but only in a negative light, sex education curriculum is lacking information on trans and gender identity issues in all states.

In the past this lack of representation in Sex Ed curriculum has been to understandings of youth’s identifications as trans as minimal and scarce, however Dr. Boskey argues the data supporting these understandings are often under representing the actual population of trans youth. She sites a study by Schreier, Moller, Li, and Romer, stating that 6% of young boys and 12% of young girls exhibit cross-gender behavior. She approximates that given the census of 316 million in the U.S in 2013, about 1.5 to 6 million Americans identify as transgender.

Dr. Boskey continues to argue that trans issues are not new and are very rarely addressed in school, although individuals identifying off the gender binary are more susceptible to emotional disorders, negative self-imagery, trauma, and abuse. By providing gender identification sections within sex education curriculum and self-image/ beauty curriculum already present in sex ed, for youth attending K-12 public schools, curriculum should promote compassionate and understanding toward their non-conforming peers in order to stem bullying and trauma, and body positive curriculum for  trans youth and cis-youth. While talking about gender identity educators would also have the opportunity to discuss the prevalence of gender roles that may adversely affect both men, women, and non-binary youth.

Children become aware of gender as young as the age of 2 and thus gender should be brought into a dialogue in a age appropriate lessons by elementary school and kindergarten. By middle school, when most students will begin the process of puberty, gender issues are especially important, as puberty can be a very traumatic, dysphoric, and stressful time for students who are non-binary conforming to go through, whilst also not receiving any formal acknowledgment of their struggles or any information or support from their academic mentors.

Dr. Boskey concludes that trans issues are not only important and necessary to the growing population of non-binary identifying students, but also broach issues important to cis and heterosexual youth about gender roles, puberty, bullying, and sexuality.

Boskey, Elizabeth. Understanding Transgender Identity Development in Childhood and Adolescence. American Journal of Sexuality Education. (Taylor and Francis, 2014.)

This journal article highlights numerous issues in China, namely the effect of foreign exchange reserves (the amount of foreign currencies held in China) on domestic inflation. The authors argue that higher foreign reserves lead to higher domestic inflation, and this inflation has a variety of internal socio-economic effects on different demographics. The article attempts to conclude that the Chinese government’s approach to maintaining domestic stability is based off short-term benefit: to avoid sudden and disruptive change/events, the government chose a gradual currency appreciation policy instead of a one-time big appreciation policy. The authors perform a cost-benefit analysis that explains how steady inflation (a consequence of gradual currency appreciation) is more favorable to the public than sudden rises in unemployment (a consequence of a one-time big appreciation policy). This choice according to the authors underlines the often-overlooked political factors that are relevant when analyzing economies. The authors presented much economic and organizational data in a quantitative fashion that they collected from public records, such as data from the People’s Bank of China and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The authors use examples of past Chinese monetary policy to support their claim (interest rates, reserve requirements and open market operations) as well as their own statistical regressions. Their statistical methods were respectable in that they acknowledged the difference between inference and fact—they in no way claimed their statistics were true and admitted that their models only worked in certain conditions (even though the numbers support their claims). What I most appreciated about this article was the emphasis on scrutiny that welcomes discussion and debate. The authors also underlined hidden social behaviors that influence domestic affairs, specifically the “catching up with the Joneses” effect, which I think would be interesting to other students of sociology.

Cheng, Tun-Jen, and Xuan Liu. “Foreign exchange reserves: a new challenge to China.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 35, no. 4 (Summer, 2013): 621-50. doi:10.2753/pke0160-3477350406.

Journal #2

The evolution of polyandry: multiple mating and female fitness in insects

Göran Arnqvist & Tina Nilsson

Arnqvist, Göran, and Tina Nilsson. “The evolution of polyandry: multiple mating and female fitness in insects.” Animal behaviour 60.2 (2000): 145-164.

This research article found in Animal Behavior examines the topic of the evolution of male and female insect mating rates. In an attempt to contest the predominant evolutionary belief that males increase their fitness (their individual reproduction and survival) by mating with many females and that females only need to mate with few males in order to increase their fitness, the authors ask what the direct effects of polyandry (female polygamy) are on female insects. A meta-analysis of 122 experimental studies addressing the direct effects of multiply mating on female fitness in insects was conducted to answer the question to this study. The type of data needed was reports of acts and behavior surrounding insect mating patterns and number of offspring taken. This information was taken from public and private research records from many institutions and organizations, with the method of data analysis being quantitative analysis since what is being measured is number of eggs produced in one lifetime. The results of this study indicate that females directly benefit from polyandry through increased egg production rate and fertility, however there is an optimal rate of polyandry and any further increase in sexual partners beyond that optimal point is damaging to the female insects. This conclusion is interesting in itself because it goes against the traditional male-female reproduction stereotypes, even though it is for insects. As a whole, this research is very thorough, it took data from over a hundred sources and those sources produced seemingly strong results and conclusions that were very relevant to the current environmental ecology field.

This article, “Reflections on ‘A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming’” by Sigmund Tobias and J.D. Fletcher, summarizes findings from a review of 95 studies on gaming and its possible use in education. The article suggests that for games to help students with tasks in the physical world there would need to be an overlap with the content of the game and the tasks at hand. It also goes over the effect that aggressive games can have on the students, the aggressive content has the possibility of instilling aggressive behavior in the player that they can act out in person. To fix this issue the articles suggests that gaming companies should create games that have “prosocial themes that have been shown… to be effective in increasing outcomes such as conflict resolution and helping reactions.” However, this would not necessarily mean this would decrease aggression, that would require further research. The article does say however that at the current moment the “enthusiasm” over the idea to integrate gaming into students learning curriculum is still not backed up with enough evidence.

The article focuses on gaming and students and more specifically asking whether there is enough evidence to say that gaming can or cannot help students learn. For this article, they required reports of acts, behavior, or events to help them get to a consensus on the data. They would have gotten this data from public records, they examined data from reports and articles already published. To analyze their data, they would have used qualitative data analysis/thematic analysis.

I found that this research better clarified how society is trying to use technology, and in this case gaming, more integrally in everyday life. I felt that this article was successful in showing the possible pros and cons of using gaming to help teach students; explaining that although merit might be found that there really is not enough evidence to support using gaming in the curriculum like some other articles may suggest.

Tobias, Sigmund., Fletcher, J.D. (2012). Reflections on “A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming”. Review of Educational Research, 82(2), 233 – 237. 10.3102/0034654312450190

The dead-zone in the Gulf of Mexico has been continually increasing in size in the journal Restoration Ecology, the journal of the society for ecological restoration this problem is being addressed. Many have blamed the agricultural industry for polluting the Mississippi river with nutrients mainly nitrogen. In the article Nitrogen farming: Harvesting a different crop written by Donald L. Hey is an analysis of nitrogen runoff and some proposals on how to reduce the amount of excess nitrogen. The topic of this article is what are some alternative ways to managing nitrogen runoff which transitioned into the question how can farming to be used to mitigate nitrogen runoff. In order to come up with the data necessary for this kind of study Hey used organizational data as well as expert knowledge. The reason these two types of data were used is because there quite a few organizations who have already documented the amount of nitrogen in the Mississippi river so instead of redoing all those test Hey used pre-existing data. The expert knowledge comes with Hey’s proposals to entice farmers to use the alternative methods he proposes this was likely done by interviewing farmers and asking in order to find ways to incentivise farmers to switch crops. After all the data was collected Hey used a Interval data analysis in order to show how the proposed crops will alleviate excess nitrogen around the Mississippi river. Overall this is a very informative article that clearly lays out the information which really shows the point of just how bad the runoff of nitrogen alone is not only the for Mississippi river but also for the Gulf of Mexico.

Journal Two

Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011

Louse J. Slater and Michael Bliss Singer

Climate change impacts the levels of precipitation certain areas will receive in the future. For some locations, climate change will increase the amount of precipitation they receive annually while for others it will drastically reduce the level of precipitation they receive. Precipitation, which becomes fluvial discharge, influences the movement of alluvial rivers. Alluvial riverbeds are comprised of mobile sediment that is transported and shapes the river channel during flood events. The article investigated the degree to which stream bed elevation changes due to climate and whether changes to the climate can be observed through riverbeds.

The data was collected through the US Geological Survey streamflow measurements of 915 sites that were minimally impacted by human activities. For each site streambed elevation above the local datum was determined and then Q, streamflow, was calculated from daily flow rates. This uses the data type reports of acts, behaviors or events and uses the data collection method of public and private records. The researchers did not complete the research themselves but used ratio data that was already available to them through the US Geologic Survey to create equations for delineating rates in streambed elevation change. It was concluded that trends in alluvial streambed elevation were influenced by changes in climate.

This research took data that was already in existence and found new ways to use it and found new conclusions that can be drawn from it. This represents a fascinating part of scientific research. You do not always have to be conducting your own research to make new discoveries and to innovate. In fact, with the data already available more time and resources can be spent on properly evaluation and interpreting the results you gain from that data.

The aspect of this article that I would like to highlight for the class is the degree to which all of the physical processes of the earth are connected. When humans adjust the climate it is changing precipitation patterns, which changes how sediment is transported and deposited, which changes the streambed elevation, which changes the likelihood of a rain event causing a flood. The impacts are so vast that research is being done every day to attempt to understand how the changes to climate that we have already observed are impacting the countless systems on earth.

Slater, L. J., & Singer, M. B. (2013). Imprint of climate and climate change in alluvial riverbeds: Continental United States, 1950-2011. Geology, 41(5), 595-598.