Ecology class term paper

[rostervandross]

I am currently taking a general ecology class and had to choose a topic on which to write a term paper. I am preparing to write on reef ecology.

Does anyone have any good source material bookmarked or to recommend?


From general diversity of form and function into symbiosis between corals and zooxanthellae.. basically anything and everything and trying to tie it all together as a whole reef ecosystem.
I am also going to have a portion of the paper talking about threats to coral reefs, the aquarium industry and its relationship with conservation. Any other ideas?

Appreciate your help!

 

[Oxylebius]

Does anyone have any good source material bookmarked or to recommend? From general diversity of form and function into symbiosis between corals and zooxanthellae.. basically anything and everything and trying to tie it all together as a whole reef ecosystem.
I am also going to have a portion of the paper talking about threats to coral reefs, the aquarium industry and its relationship with conservation. Any other ideas?

Appreciate your help!

How long is this term paper supposed to be? You mentioned quite a bit of topics there.

Do you plan to talk at a high level and brush on all these topics or would you rather stick to a couple that are connected and be able to talk more indepth about them? If you decide to do both, you are looking at a very long term paper.

Here is a list of things to give you ideas: http://coralreefecology.ucsd.edu/

 

[rostervandross]

Thanks oxy! There is no particular page requirement, but probably a substantial 10 pages or a bit less in my case. I write very succinctly so I need as much different material to touch on as possible.

 

[Oxylebius]

Well, to start with there are three categories the way I see it: ecology of coral reefs, the biology of key coral reef animals, and interactions between humans and reefs. By structuring your paper into these three categories you can then dive down into the the subtopics in a little more depth. To help focus the topics (instead of writing about everything), I'd pick up a coral reef ecology book or two to see what topics are covered in there. Then choose those topics that let the paper build upon the previous topic.

Start off with the intro of the paper describing the ecology of the reef (general diversity of form and function), you can then focus on a couple of examples of the biology of coral reef animals (as you already mentioned symbiosis between corals and zooxanthellae), and I'd end the paper on how these sensitive organisms are responding to a host of natural and human-induced changes that have been occurring in coral reef habitats over the last several decades, including harvest pressures from industry, coral disease, coastal pollution and ocean warming and acidification.

I'd use google scholar to help you find peer-reviewed published papers. I'm sure you will have access to many of them through your university/college.

U.S. Coral import laws and regulations: http://www.fws.gov/international/animals/coral.html
Revealing the Appetite of the Marine Aquarium Fish Trade: The Volume and Biodiversity of Fish Imported into the U.S. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/resource/img/logo.plos.95.png
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X10001089

Good luck!

 

[rostervandross]

Thank you partner. That is basically how my outline is laid out so far. I will begin searching for some scientific quality/peer-reviewed papers and in the mean time if anyone has any interesting articles or websites bookmarked or anything please share!

 

[Oxylebius]

http://coralreef.noaa.gov/threats/