BIOLOGY OF MARINE ORGANISMS

Abstracts

The purpose of these assignments is to encourage you to examine the scientific background behind topics of current interest discussed in the course. First, you must decide on a suitable topic. It may be any area that is discussed during the course. If you are unsure, see me. Then, go to the library and find one recent (within the last 5 years) article that provides background on the situation. That is, an article that discusses the general problem, or reports on original research dealing with the issue.

Not all magazine articles are appropriate. The article used must be scholarly, not popular. The easiest way to decide whether an article is acceptable is to see whether there is a bibliography at the end. No bibliography, no good. Magazines such as Newsweek, Time, National Geographic, and newspapers are not acceptable. Some appropriate sources are general interest journals such as Scientific American, American Scientist or BioScience. In addition, there are many technical journals such as Marine Biology, Science, Nature, Ecology, as well as many more specialized ones (these latter ones may be quite difficult to follow). Note: web-sites are not appropriate for this assignment, unless they are the online version of a regular, print journal. If you are unsure whether a source is appropriate, please see me.

Use the following format: At the top of the page include the author, year, article title, journal title, volume and pages. Write a one paragraph summary of the article, in your own words. Do not use any direct quotes anywhere in your abstract. This should be no longer than 1 page (typed, double-spaced), and include the following: A brief description of the topic or problem, the key findings, and the significance of the findings in terms of the general subject. Note that you are not writing a review of the article. I do not want to know if you agreed or disagreed, or if you liked or didn’t like the article. You will note that many research articles already have an abstract or summary, written by the author. Please Xerox this and include it along with your own. The papers will be graded for the clarity and grammatical correctness of the writing as well as content.

Five are required (10 points each).