Initial Research and Write Up

Annotations:

Article 1.)

J. Emmette, Duffy. "Biodiversity - Encyclopedia of Earth." Encyclopedia of Earth. N.p., 28 Dec. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. http://www.eoearth.org/article/biodiversity#The_magnitude_of_biodiversity>

“Biological diversity is of fundamental importance to the functioning of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems, and by extension to the ecosystem services that nature provides free of charge to human society.” This essay was mostly about how biodiversity is a fundamental and vital part of our existence. A huge reason why biodiversity is decreasing is because of the lack of varied habitat. This article explained what biodiversity was and how it affects us. This article also explains the distribution of biodiversity as well as the human disturbance factors. I found this article very interesting and very helpful. I enjoyed how it explained everything in an easy to understand scientific matter.” Human intervention in ecosystem function have been expressed through habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, overexploitation, and pollution.” I found this article very reliable and I do not believe that it has a bias.

Article 2.)

Samper, Cristián. "Planetary boundaries: Rethinking biodiversity : article : Nature Reports Climate Change."Nature Publishing Group : science journals, jobs, and information. N.p., 23 Sept. 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. http://www.nature.com/climate/2009.99.html>

This article was mostly about the different theories about biodiversity. It didn’t have many concrete facts, but it did have a lot of interesting theories. One theory that I found really interesting was “extinction of species should not exceed ten species per million per year. If this is exceeded, they argue, we risk irreversible environmental change.” I didn’t find this article very interesting, I do not believe that it was very reliable and it ended up being slightly biased. It did not provide the kind of information that I wanted, and for that reason I say that it wasn’t very helpful.

Article 3.)

"Biodiversity loss a crisis forgotten | Manila Bulletin."mb.com.ph | Manila Bulletin. N.p., 20 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

This article was interesting because it talked about what we can do about the decreasing biodiversity. It talked about International Year of Biodiversity and how a lot of countries are going to do something to raise awareness about the decreasing biodiversity. It also included information about how every animal matters, “from the smallest insect to the biggest whale. Biodiversity is the web of life that includes the full-range of ecosystems, species living within such ecosystems, and the genetic variety of those species produced by nature or shaped by humans.” I found this article very interesting as well as full of information. I didn’t think that it was very biased and it gave me new information.