Article critique and presentation: Below I have assigned each student a paper from the primary literature. Students will prepare an ~15-minute presentation (PowerPoint slides) summarizing the background, objectives, methods and overarching findings of their assigned paper – providing also a one-page overview with citation and summary of the major findings. Be sure to anchor your talk in the broader issues of evolutionary biology, ecology or conservation – providing context for the motivation of the study. Provide broad brushstroke detail on the methods and not the minutiae. Present key figures but do not feel compelled to present everything. Do be aware that some articles will have significant swaths of text and figures in supplementary materials. I recognize that some methods may be beyond your ken. Please contact me should you wish to work through these together or get some definitions. All students should read the article in advance so as to maximize what you learn and understand. Worth 15% of your final grade.
Peer evaluation I think is a formative component of undergraduate training. It forces each person to think about what they personally find most effective and compelling in a presentation and simultaneously provides constructive input for the presenter. I have created a peer evaluation form that can be found here | Article_Peer_Evaluation_Form |. It should be fillable so that you can quickly complete it online. I will also print off some hard copies should this be your preferred method. I would like each student to evaluate each presenter and send their evaluations to me. I will collate these and return them to you – minus the evaluator’s name at the bottom of the form.
I here provide an example of a handout that I made for this article just to provide you with some idea of how one might go about creating this: Hörhold, M., T. Münch, S. Weißbach et al. 2022. Modern temperatures in central–north Greenland warmest in past millennium. Nature 613: 503–507.
Articles for student critiques:
Origins of biodiversity:
1. Pável Matos-Maraví, Niklas Wahlberg, André V L Freitas, Phil Devries, Alexandre Antonelli, Carla M Penz. 2021. Mesoamerica is a cradle and the Atlantic Forest is a museum of Neotropical butterfly diversity: insights from the evolution and biogeography of Brassolini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 133: 704–724. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blab034 Presenter: Sarah Date: Monday January 23
2. Oswald, C. B., Lemes, P., Thomé, M. T., Pezzuti, T. L., Santos, F. R., Garcia, P. C., Leite, F. S. & de Magalhães, R. F. 2022. Colonization rather than fragmentation explains the geographical distribution and diversification of treefrogs endemic to Brazilian shield sky islands. Journal of Biogeography 49: 682– 698. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14320 Presenter: Madi Date: Monday January 23
3. Niels K Krabbe, Thomas S Schulenberg, Peter A Hosner, Kenneth V Rosenberg, Tristan J Davis, Gary H Rosenberg, Daniel F Lane, Michael J Andersen, Mark B Robbins, Carlos Daniel Cadena, Thomas Valqui, Jessie F Salter, Andrew J Spencer, Fernando Angulo, Jon Fjeldså. 2020. Untangling cryptic diversity in the High Andes: Revision of the Scytalopus [magellanicus] complex (Rhinocryptidae) in Peru reveals three new species. The Auk 137: 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukaa003 Presenter: Belle Date: Monday January 23
4. Hagen, O. A. Skeels, R.E. Onstein and W. Jetz. 2021. Earth history events shaped the evolution of uneven biodiversity across tropical moist forests. PNAS 118(40) e2026347118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2026347118 Presenter: Katriona Date: Monday January 23
Tropical ecology:
5. Xing, X., Jacquemyn, H., Gai, X., Gao, Y., Liu, Q., Zhao, Z. and Guo, S. 2019. The impact of life form on the architecture of orchid mycorrhizal networks in tropical forest. Oikos 128: 1254-1264. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.06363 Presenter: Matilda Date: Thursday January 26
6. Alroy, J. 2019. Latitudinal gradients in the ecology of New World bats. Global Ecology and Biogeography 28: 784-792. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12892 Presenter: Kira Date: Thursday January 26
7. Adriano Marcos Da Silva, Luís Paulo Pires & Celine De Melo (2022) Forest dependent birds are the main frugivorous species in mutualistic networks from the Brazilian Cerrado, Écoscience 29: 167-175, DOI: 10.1080/11956860.2021.1987653 Presenter: Siena Date: Thursday January 26
8. Freeman, B.G., T. Weeks, D. Schluter and J.A. Tobias. 2022. The latitudinal gradient in rates of evolution for bird beaks, a species interaction trait. Ecology Letters. 25(3 – Special Issue: Avian Functional Traits): 635-646. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13726 Presenter: Bethany Date: Thursday January 26
(Some) Threats:
9. Newbold, T., Oppenheimer, P., Etard, A. et al. 2020. Tropical and Mediterranean biodiversity is disproportionately sensitive to land-use and climate change. Nature Ecology Evolution 4: 1630–1638. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01303-0 Presenter: Zachary Date: Monday January 30
10. Lily G. C. Genevier, Tahira Jamil, Dionysios E. Raitsos, George Krokos, Ibrahim Hoteit. 2019. Marine heatwaves reveal coral reef zones susceptible to bleaching in the Red Sea. Global Change Biology 25: 2338-2351. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14652 Presenter: Olivia Date: Monday January 30
11. Torres, P.C., C. Morsello, L. Parry, and R. Pardini. 2021. Forest cover and social relations are more important than economic factors in driving hunting and bushmeat consumption in post-frontier Amazonia. Biological Conservation 253:108823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108823. Presenter: Grace Date: Monday January 30
12. Zipkin, E.F., G.V. DiRenzo, J.M. Ray, S. Rossman and K.R. Lips. 2020. Tropical snake diversity collapses after widespread amphibian loss. Science 367(6479): 814-816. DOI: 10.1126/science.aay5733 (note Supplementary material) Presenter: Abigail Date: Monday January 30
(Some) Solutions:
13. Garnett, S.T., Burgess, N.D., Fa, J.E. et al. 2018. A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. Nature Sustainability 1: 369-374. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0100-6 Presenter: Carissa Date: Thursday February 2
14. Poorter, L. et al (+80 authors). 2022. Multidimensional tropical forest recovery. Science 374: 1370-1376. DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3629 Presenter: Dana Date: Thursday February 2
15. Williams, S.H., Scriven, S.A., Burslem, D.F.R.P., Hill, J.K., Reynolds, G., Agama, A.L., Kugan, F., Maycock, C.R., Khoo, E., Hastie, A.Y.L., Sugau, J.B., Nilus, R., Pereira, J.T., Tsen, S.L.T., Lee, L.Y., Juiling, S., Hodgson, J.A., Cole, L.E.S., Asner, G.P., Evans, L.J. and Brodie, J.F. 2020. Incorporating connectivity into conservation planning for the optimal representation of multiple species and ecosystem services. Conservation Biology 34: 934-942. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13450 Presenter: Ben Date: Thursday February 2
16. Jaffé, R, Veiga, JC, Pope, NS, et al. Landscape genomics to the rescue of a tropical bee threatened by habitat loss and climate change. Evol Appl. 2019; 12: 1164– 1177. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12794 Presenter: Isabelle Date: Thursday February 2
17. Linero, D. P. Angela, and A.E. Cuervo-Robayo. 2020. Assessing the future conservation potential of the Amazon and Andes Protected Areas: Using the woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagothricha) as an umbrella species. Journal for Nature Conservation. 58, 125926,. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2020.125926. Presenter: Madelyn Date: Thursday February 2