Ecology Anthropause on the Mosquitofish Population Question

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ynsynzr

Science

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Introduction (minimum 1 page of text)

?    Importance of your project and research question

?    Background information on how the anthropause affected other animal populations

?    Background info on mosquitofish life history

?    Knowledge gap

?    State your research question, biological hypotheses, and predictions

?    Times New Roman, 12 pt font, double-spaced, 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins on all sides

?    In-text citations are required for every statement (even if you are using the information from the same source for 3 sentences).

?    You must state everything in your own words. You must paraphrase the literature. Remember that you are NOT permitted to use quotations, as we expect you to paraphrase to demonstrate understanding of what you read in the literature.

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Worksheet 1 – Scientific Writing: Instructions This worksheet is designed to help you practice finding, reading, and paraphrasing peer-reviewed scientific articles. Refer to your TA’s in-class lecture and the required reading (Turbek et al., 2016) for guidance. Remember that your TA’s office hours are also a valuable resource! You must cite peer-reviewed scientific articles (primary and secondary literature). For this assignment, you are NOT permitted to cite books. While you may use Internet search engines (Google Scholar, Web of Science) to download research articles, you may NOT cite websites. How to Format Your Citations Once you have explained an idea, you should finish your sentence with an in-text citation. Example: Seagrasses have been found growing at depths up to 90 meters (Duarte 1990). If you are citing more than one reference for an idea, then include all references in chronological order in the same in-text citation but separate them with a comma. Example: Electric communication has evolved multiple times in teleost fish species (Alves-Gomez 2001; Maynard-Smith and Harper 2003, Bernal et al. 2007). When creating your “Literature Cited” list (i.e., “Bibliography), always list the articles in alphabetic order. Use a hanging indent (i.e., all lines after the first line should be indented.) ARTICLE WITH ONE AUTHOR In-Text: (Last name Year) Example: My sentence explaining this study’s major conclusion (Alves-Gomes 2001). Literature Cited: Last name, Initials. Year. Title. Journal name Volume number: Start page-Last page. Example: Alves-Gomes, J.A. 2001. The evolution of electroreception and bioelectrogenesis in teleost fish: a phylogenetic perspective. Journal of Fish Biology 58:1489-1511. ARTICLE WITH TWO OR MORE AUTHORS In-text 2 authors: (Author 1 last name 1 & author 2 last name, year) Example: My sentence explaining this study (Rypel & Layman 2008). In-text 3 authors: (Author 1 last name et al., year) Example: My sentence explaining this study (Archer et al., 2012). Literature Cited: Author 1 last name, Author 1 initials, author 2 initials author 2 last name, …, final author initials final author last name. Year. Title. Journal name Volume: start page-last page. Example - two authors: Rypel, A.L. and C.A. Layman. 2008. Degree of aquatic ecosystem fragmentation predicts population characteristics of gray snapper (Lutjanus griseus) in Caribbean tidal creeks. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65:335-339. Example - three or more authors: Archer, S.K., S.A. Heppell, B.X. Semmens, C.V. Pattengill-Semmens, P.G. Bush, C.M. McCoy, and B.C. Johnson. 2012. Patterns of color phase indicate spawn timing at a Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) spawning aggregation. Current Zoology 58:70-80. Worksheet 1 – Scientific Writing: Questions (100 points) Reminder: Follow the correct formatting for all worksheets (12 pt font, double-spaced, do not include original questions BUT KEEP THE BULLET POINTS WITH THE QUESTION NUMBER). In all cases, we require that your work be typed. Incorrect formatting will result in a 5% penalty on this assignment. Answer/address all of the following questions. You are creating an outline of your “Introduction” for your scientific paper. You are expected to paraphrase the literature that you read IN YOUR OWN WORDS, so… no quotations – paraphrase it! Include in-text citations after each of your bullet points. Finally, part of your grade for each question is based on how well you answered the question (e.g., 3 bullet points with vague information is not considered a good answer) and creativity. ***Plagiarism is unacceptable and will result in an automatic 0 on this assignment. For each question, the required citations are the minimum and you can use more citations than listed (e.g., if the question is asking for 2 citations, you can cite more than 2 citations). HOWEVER, each question should have unique citations to meet the minimum reference requirement (i.e., find a new citation for Q#2 compared to Q#1); your "Literature Cited" section would thus have at least 8 unique references. However, you can still cite the same article multiple times across questions (e.g., after citing 2 unique articles for Q#3, you could also cite an article from Q#1 in the paragraph to strengthen your answer/content and thus have 3 citations total for Q#3). Peer-reviewed references can be from any year. Over the next few weeks, your will be investigating this question: How did changes in human activity from COVID-19 lockdowns (the anthropause) affect the life history of Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)? 1. Use a minimum of 3 bullet points to explain why the study’s question is important. • Why is it important to study the effect of human activity on population ecology? Why is it important to specifically study the anthropause on population ecology? • You should also tie into why a reader should care about Eastern Mosquitofish in South Florida. Why is this fish species important? Note: Eastern Mosquitofish are a native species in Florida. They are NOT invasive on campus. Cite at least TWO peer-reviewed scientific articles (primary or secondary). Include in-text citations and add the full reference to the “Literature Cited” in Q#7. (16 pts) 2. Use a minimum of 4 bullet points to explain what is already known about how the anthropause (i.e., COVID-19 changes to human activity, specifically) affects animal and/or plant populations. You should consider using examples about how animal fitness (survival/mortality; reproduction) was affected during the lockdown. Remember that examples usually briefly explain the study’s question, methods, and results/conclusions. Cite at least TWO different examples from peer-reviewed scientific articles, BOTH OF WHICH MUST BE PRIMARY SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES. Include in-text citations and add the full references to the “Literature Cited” in Q#7. Hint: You do NOT have to find articles on mosquitofish populations! (20 pts) 3. Use a minimum of 4 bullet points to explain what is already known about how human activity affects the life history of fish populations. Look at Q#4 for examples of specific life history traits to use as keywords in your search. Remember that examples usually briefly explain the study’s question, methods, and results/conclusions. Cite at least TWO different examples from peer-reviewed scientific articles, BOTH OF WHICH MUST BE PRIMARY SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES. Include in-text citations and add the full references to the “Literature Cited” in Q#7. Hint: You do NOT have to find articles on mosquitofish populations! (20 pts) 4. Use a minimum of 5 bullet points on our current knowledge about the normal life history of Eastern Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). Consider the following 7 important life history traits: type of reproduction by mosquitofish, age of sexual maturity, number of offspring in a brood/clutch, number of times that females can reproduce in a lifetime, fecundity, generation time, population size/growth rate. Hint: Your TA is looking to see a relatively complete description of mosquitofish life history traits. Cite at least TWO peer-reviewed scientific articles, of which AT LEAST ONE MUST BE A PRIMARY SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE. Include in-text citations and add the full references to the “Literature Cited” in Q#7. (20 pts) 5. Based on the study question, write an ecological hypothesis. (4 pts) 6. Based on the readings that you completed to answer the above questions, write predictions for how the anthropause affected Eastern Mosquitofish: (i) number of offspring, (ii) generation time (average time until a female gives birth to one offspring), and (iii) population growth rate. (6 pts) 7. Write out your “Literature Cited” section here. Follow the formatting guidelines from the instructions section of this worksheet. (10 pts) 8. Your TA will use this space to assign you a grade and provide feedback on grammar and spelling. (4 pts) • 0 pts: Frequent grammar/spelling errors. Writing style is rough and hard-to-read. • 2 pts: Occasional grammar/spelling errors. Generally readable with some rough spots. • 4 pts: Very few grammar/spelling errors. The writing style is mature and readable.
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Explanation & Answer

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The Impact of Invasive Nature of Mosquitofish on Native Ecosystem

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The Impact of Invasive Nature of Mosquitofish on Native Ecosystem
One of the key challenges the normal functioning of the global ecosystem faces is human
activities, including induced biological invasions. The marine ecosystem is especially vulnerable
to biological invasions where humans introduce aquatic species in non-native ecosystems.
However, some introduced species adapt to the non-native ecosystem and colonize them, thus
significantly affecting the native species. Thus, this study is important as it seeks to answer how
non-native biological invasion of the mosquitofish threatens the aquatic ecosystem.
The term anthropause came into existence during the lockdown instituted by various
governments across the globe to control the spread of Covid 19. Scientists have defined the
terms referring to the unprecedented decline or slowdown in human activity, including traveling,
outdoor activities, and tourism (Samurovic, 2021). According to StokstadAug (2020),
anthropause presented scientists with a golden opportunity for scientists to study how the
slowdown of human activities affected the behavior of animals. According to researchers,
numerous rare species were sighted during the anthropause in different parts of the world,
including a sighting of river otters, pink-plumed flamingos in waterways of Mumbai, and wild
boar strolling the streets of Haifa in Israel (StokstadAug, 2020).
The mosquitofish is one of the most common non-native biological invasive fish species
globally, whose ecological impacts have been heavily documented. Mainly, there are two species
of mosquitofish, namely eastern mosquitofish and western mosquitofish (Langerhans et al.,
2012). Each of these species occupies different climatic conditions, although mosquitofish have
adapted to different non-native climate conditions. As Benejam et al. (2009) notes, latitude has a
huge effect on mosquitofish, where those in the northern latitudes were small in size at maturity
compared to their southern counterparts. Alcaraz and García-Berthou (2007) further note that

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females are the dominant species with a female-to-male of 1.65:1, where fecundity ranges from 4
to 65 eggs. This is also supported by Patimar et al. (2011), who notes that other studies have
concluded that the female-to-male sex ratio among the western mosquitofish is 2:1. In line with
these findings, Gkenas (2012) notes that mosquitofish is thus characterized by a fast growth rate,
low fecundity, and relatively short lifespan, which are key enablers of the invasive nature of
mosquitofish.
Numerous studies have been conducted on population dynamics and reproductive
biology of mosquitofish in different ecosystems. For example, a study conducted by Alcaraz and
Garcia-Berthou(2007) investigated the productivity of mosquitofish in rice irrigation channels,
while another study conducted by Cheng et al. (2018) sort to study the life-history trait of the
mosquitofish population in China. However, there has been no comprehensive study on the
Impact of mosquitofish on the invaded ecosystem. Thus this study will seek to answer how nonnative biological invasion of the mosquitofish threatens the aquatic ecosystem. The biological
hypothesis is that the invasion of ecosystems by mosquitofish significantly damages the normal
functioning of the native ecosystem. It is predicted that the hypothesis will be true.

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References
Alcaraz, C., & García-Berthou, E. (2007). Life history variation of invasive mosquitofish
(Gambusia holbrooki) along a salinity gradient. Biological Conservation, 139(1-2), 8392.
Benejam, L., Alcaraz, C., Sasal, P., Simon-Levert, G., & García-Berthou, E. (2009). Life history
and parasites of the invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) along a latitudinal
gradient. Biological Invasions, 11(10), 2265-2277.
Cheng, Y., Xiong, W., Tao, J., He, D., Chen, K., & Chen, Y. (2018). Life-history traits of the
invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis Baird and Girard, 1853) in the central Yangtze
River, China. BioInvasions Records, 7(3), 309-318.
Erik StokstadAug. 13, 2. (2020, August 18). The pandemic stilled human activity. What did this
'anthropause' mean for wildlife? Retrieved from
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/pandemic-stilled-human-activity-what-didanthropause-mean-wildlife
Gkenas, C., Oik...

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