While I was researching for an article that has been published in the year 2000, I stumbled upon this article: How do depth, duration and frequency of flooding influence the establishment of wetland plant communities? This research paper was written by Michelle T. Casanova & Margaret A. Brock. 

In that paper, both researchers were determined to find what water factors, including depth and frequency of water flooding, affect the plant communities at the wetlands. They conducted an experiment by gathering seed bank from two different wetlands. The seed bank consisted of different species of plants, thus, allowed for examining different responses to different conditions for each species. Each seed bank was introduced to about 17 different conditions; this included different water depths, frequency and duration of flooding. 

Their results showed that duration and frequency had the most effect on the composition of the plant communities in the seed banks, while depth had little effect on the plants. The planters that have been flooded showed a smaller plant population, in comparison to the plants that did not experience any flooding. The longer the flooding, the smaller the plant communities became. The only plants that was able to survive long durations of floods were the anoxic plants, which means they can survive in low levels of oxygen. This study provided insight on how vegetation can be affected by the water regimes in both natural or modified wetlands.

Reference: Casanova, M. T., & Brock, M. A. (2000). How Do Depth, Duration and Frequency of Flooding Influence the Establishment of Wetland Plant Communities? Plant Ecology, 147(2), 237–250. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20050919

By: Areeba Tahreem

1. What does the “19” in “COVID-19” refer to?
   1.  There are currently 19 variants of Coronavirus, each with one unique varying symptom than the other variants. 
   2.  There are a total of 19 definite symptoms of coronavirus disease. 
   3. The ongoing pandemic is the 19th coronavirus pandemic in history. 
   4. The coronavirus disease and the symptoms it causes were identified in 2019.
   5. None of the above 
2. What does the covid mRNA vaccine do to your body when taken? 
   1. Stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies, like it would if you were exposed to the virus.
   2. The vaccine contains a small dosage of live coronavirus that won’t harm your body and make you get the symptoms of the actual disease. 
   3. The vaccine is a fraud and doesn’t do anything beneficial. 
   4. The vaccine helps you become protected against the coronavirus by producing a surplus of red blood cells 
3. Which of the following viruses belong to the Coronaviridae family?  (the same family Covid-19 belongs to) 
   1. The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)  
   2. SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) 
   3. Australian bat lyssavirus
   4. Only A and B are correct
   5. All of the above 
4. What percentage of alcohol do sanitizers need to have to kill the coronaviruses and other germs: 
   1. 25% 
   2. 60% 
   3. 45% 
   4. 80% 
5. Coronavirus is described as a zoonotic virus – what does this mean?
   1. Such viruses are confined to animals
   2. They do not cause disease in humans
   3. They emerge from animals and transfer to humans 
   4. They cause pandemics

Answers

1. D
2. A
3. D
4. B
5. C

By:Areeba Tahreem

Peer-reviewed primary scientific literature reports on an empirical research study conducted by the authors and undergoes the process of peer-review. Peer review is usually done by other researchers who are familiar with the topic. It is designed to assess the validity, quality and often the originality of articles for publication. As well as to maintain the integrity of science by filtering out invalid or poor quality articles. It is not a process for detecting fraud but a way of ensuring that scientists are reading quality work from other researchers. Peer review thus lends credence and authority to a publication. The peer-reviewed primary scientific literature titled “Climate-associated phenological advances in bee pollinators and bee-pollinated plants” has the characteristics of peer-reviewed primary literature. 

1. Research question: Has the phenology of bees and the bee-pollinated plants changed as a result of climate change? 
2. Identifies a research population: the phenology of 10 bee species from northeastern North America that emerge in early spring was selected for study because spring-active taxa are known to be good indicators of response to climate change, and all 10 species are generalists that visit a wide range of spring-blooming flowers. 
3. Describes a specific research method: We conducted a joint analysis of all bee species combined by using the R package name (46). This analysis used collection day as an outcome variable and the collection year, sex, longitude, latitude, and the interactions between collection year and sex as predictors
4. Tests or measures something: To evaluate the rate of change in bee phenology over time, the researchers used a general linear mixed model with the day of the year that the specimen was collected as the outcome, year, latitude, and bee sex as predictors, and bee species as a random factor.
5. Structured in a standard format called IMRAD: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. 

In contrast, the secondary scientific literature is when scientists integrate, condense or summarize results from primary literature into review articles or books. They are extremely useful in providing a broad overview of a field and usually provide more background information and less technical methodology. They usually have no abstract and the data, figures or images are taken from other sources. Simply said it reports on an empirical research study conducted by other authors and uses their findings to prove a point or use it as evidence for a hypothesis. The secondary scientific literature titled “Plants and climate change: complexities and surprises” has the characteristics of a secondary scientific literature. 

1. Aims to provide evidence for a claim: Examine plant–climate interactions on more sophisticated levels than before. These analyses have revealed major differences in plant response among groups and have also exposed unexpected mismatches between theory, experimental, and observational studies.
2. Use numerous other primary scientific sources to provide evidence for its claims, use their findings, and data as supporting details, and do not conduct an experiment itself. 
3. Provides extremely detailed background information about the relationship between climate change and its impacts on plants. 

Similarly, tertiary scientific literature presents summaries or condensed versions of materials usually with references to primary or secondary sources. Like secondary literature, it uses other resources as references and is not written in a similar format as primary scientific literature. But a major difference between secondary and tertiary literature is that it does not analyze, interpret, or draw conclusions from a primary source but rather sources that index, organize, or compile other sources. As a result, it can be a good place to look up facts or get a general overview of a subject. An example of it would be “Plant Disturbance Ecology”, a textbook. It has chapters discussing varying topics to educate the readers and uses numerous primary and secondary sources to provide information. 

By: Areeba Tahreem

One of the other films I had chosen but did not nominate for the Film Festival was Walle-E. I remember watching Walle-E when I was younger and enjoying it, although I did not observe nor understand the environmental messages depicted throughout it. But, now after rewatching it I was able to observe the underlying environmental themes and understand its message as well. The movie follows a toy robot named WALL-E, which is short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class. He is the last robot left on Earth and spends his days tidying up the planet, one piece of garbage at a time. This dystopian world portrays a future where humans have ruined Earth’s environment with trash. They live in space, captives to screens, self-driving chairs, liquefied food and robot servants. A major theme prevalent in the movie is the idea that humans make and use too much stuff and if they continue down this path, eventually our planet will be overwhelmed with toxicity and threaten every life form to extinction. 

The movie Wall-E relates to applied plant ecology because it depicts the impacts of Habitat fragmentation and loss (landscape ecology). Because of how poorly humans treated the planet, by polluting it to an unlivable state forcing them to flee the planet in giant resort spaceships. The entirety of the planet transforms into a trash planet. The fleeing away on big spaceships portrays the attitude of humans that choose to run away from the problem, or better yet not even acknowledge the existence of an issue, rather than solving the problem to make the planet better, and duse in sustainable manners. 

Next, the loss of biodiversity – the extinction crisis – for plants is also depicted in the movie. Throughout the movie, there are no trees, plants, or animals in any of the scenes shown there is simply no nature. This is because one of the direct impacts of humans polluting the planet, whether it be by burning fossil fuels, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, or unsustainable deforestation and agriculture practices, all impact biodiversity. Biodiversity decreases since changes in the environment impact them, and humans polluting the planet negatively impacts them which is why they are no longer present and roaming the planet in the movie, there is just junk. 

 But despite the degraded conditions, WALL-E found himself in, the movie still showed viewers there was potential for reform. There is a scene in the movie where There’s still one little sprig of a plant that WALL-E finds and realizes is different from the junk around him. So there’s the possibility of regeneration and restoration that where there’s life, there’s hope.  And although humans destroy the planet in varying manners they can also bring reformation if they try to do so, and fix the root of the problems. 

1. Which of the following is true about how covid-19 is spread?
   a. Through objects that have been infected with covid-19
   b. Through food that has been infected with covid-19
   c. Someone infected coughing without a mask next to you
2. Which is the best way to not get covid-19?
   a. Wearing a K-95 mask and get vaccinated
   b. Going to parties with a lot of people
   c. Just using a mask
   d. Not wearing a mask ever and not getting vaccinated
3. How can you cure yourself when you get covid-19?
   a. Take 2 Tylenols one in the day and one at night
   b. You don’t. You just wait until it is gone
   c. Go to see a doctor
4. Can you die from covid-19?
   a. Yes, but the numbers are not as large as you would think and they are going down
   b. No
5. Which is the most accurate covid-19 test to know if you are positive?
   a. Antigen test
   b. PCR

When we got this assignment, we were told that it had to be about plant ecology and one of the topics that are in the handout everyone said the Lorax and Wall-E but I wanted to look for something different. I had drawn blank thinking about what film to choose because most of the documentaries that I see are about animals (since those are usually the most popular), so I did some research on google of plant ecology documentaries. I stumbled on a website called Top Documentary Films and found that there is a category of nature. Then I just started reading the description of them to see which one sounded interesting.

The film that I almost choose for my film project is a documentary called The Secret of the Methuselah. I particularly liked this documentary because it was different than the rest. Most documentaries are narrated by one person and describe the species and what they are doing in their environment. They would also say how they interact with other species and show clips of them in their natural habitat. While I do like those types of documentaries (usually narrated by David Attenborough) I wanted something different that would still be very educational, and I would learn new things.

The particular thing about this documentary is its narration of it. The narration is in the form of poems which the narration is saying to the tree. You would think that they would at least be about the tree, but no he is saying them to this tree. The documentary is about the oldest tree in the world. Also, sometimes there are poems that the tree is saying to all of us.

One of the many new things that I learned is that by observing the cross-section of a trunk, we can examine the climates of past years. This is how we can date tree rings to measure the climate. Similarly, how we can examine the history by looking at the soil horizon of a hill or a mountain.