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BIOL 4620Begin Working on Your Proposal
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NameInitial IdeaArticle 1
URL or Citation		Read the abstract of article 1.
Why do you think this article will be useful for developing your research question? Why does it matter to you?		Article 2
URL or Citation		Read the abstract of article 2.
Why do you think this article will be useful for developing your research question? Why does it matter to you?		Article 3 [Optional]
URL or Citation		Read the abstract of article 3.
Why do you think this article will be useful for developing your research question? Why does it matter to you?		Clarified IdeaBonus Articles Because You Want To [Optional]Read the abstract of article 4 [Optional].
Why do you think this article will be useful for developing your research question? Why does it matter to you?
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Lorenzo Angelus FernandezWhat are the impacts of current plant biodiversity on the rest of the food web?Griggs, T. C. (2007). Introduction to the CSSA symposium—beyond the plant: Biodiversity impacts on the grazing animal. Crop Science, 47(1), 380–381. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2006.08.0507 The article contains three papers regarding how grazing animals (sheep and cattle) are effected by and impact plant diversity communities, which can show general patterns for herbivores in grassland ecosystemsVillalba, J. J., Haskell, J., MacAdam, J. W., Griggs, T. C., & Wiedmeier, R. D. (2007). The value to herbivores of plant physical and chemical diversity in time and space. Crop Science, 47(1), 382–398. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2006.02.0083 This study reviewed the impacts of herbivores on their pasture/grassland ecosystem and how the animals in turn were effected by their forage quality and quantity. So the biodiverity of a grassland ecosystem has impacts on its herbivores which would then affect the carnivores and so forth.Argañaraz, C. I., Benitez, J., Soler, R., Sola, F., & Lencinas, M. V. (2022). Urbanization effect of homogenization on ground-dwelling arachnids’ diversity in natural forest and peatland remnants. Journal of Insect Conservation, 27(2), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-022-00453-9This study analyzes spider biodiversity in a variety of ecosystems from urban through forest and peatland, showing how a carnivore of feasible size and ability to experiment with in ecosystems that are reasonable for the experiments this course could perform.What are the impacts of current plant biodiversity on the rest of the food web on the microfauna such as insects and arachnids?https://esajournals-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/doi/full/10.1002/ecy.3897Nutrient enrichment, which has either positive or negative effects in plants, is also shown to have an impact in subterranean and terrestrial arthropods.
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Henri SearlesHow does plant diversity change across a forest-grassland ecotone?https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/doi/full/10.1111/rec.12103This article discusses how the presence of oak trees/the creation of oak savannas may assist certain native perennial California grasses by providing areas of intermediate disturbance for them to grow in at the edges of the canopies, but right underneath the canopy non-native annual grasses tend to dominate. This is important to understanding how tree canopy layers affect species diversity, especially in California where many native species are being dominated by exotic species.https://www-jstor-org.mimas.calstatela.edu/stable/24751105This study found that oak tree presence increased species richness at 2 of the 4 savanna sites surveyed compared to the surrounding grasslands at these sites and that larger trees tended to have more species associeated with them. This also contributes to the idea of intermediate tree canopy cover increasing species diversity.https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/doi/full/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00872.xThis study looked at plant diversity in Australian eucalyptus woodlands and found that invasion and domination by exotic plant species and soil nutrient concentrations are critical to understanding plant diversity in Mediterranean woodland habitats. This provides a more nuanced way to look at diversity in woodlands here in California beyond just canopy presence.Does Brassica nigra presence influence plant growth form diversity?https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/doi/10.1111/avsc.12448This article found that exotic species richness and abundance was partially able to explain variance in native species growth form abundance, which inspired my clarified idea and the methods may be a starting point for creating an experiment proposal.
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Natasha Khanna-DangDoes fire disturbance improve plant biodiversity in Southern California vegetation communities where fire has been suppressed for decades?Keeley, J. E. (2005). Fire as a Threat to Biodiversity in Fire-Type Shrublands. In Planning for biodiversity: Bringing research and management together; Proceedings of a Symposium for the South Coast Ecoregion (pp. 97–106). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. https://doi.org/10.2737/PSW-GTR-195Keeley discusses how the current fire regime in Southern California habitats has drastically changed due to modern human influences. Nowadays, fires happen more often and with higher intensities than Southern California vegetative communities like coastal sage scrub and chapparal are adapted to. These communities maybe be fire adapted but not to the new fire regime which may be more detirmental and can lead to the loss of alot of threatened and endangered plant species. The article is important to me because it give a big picture perspective on how most fires in Southern Calfiornia are human induce and have changed the fire regimes in region. Thomson, D. M., Bonapart, A. D., King, R. A., Schultz, E. L., & Startin, C. R. (2020). Long-term monitoring of a highly invaded annual grassland community through drought, before and after an unintentional fire. Journal of Vegetation Science, 31(2), 307–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12833Authors did a four year study to measure the effects an unintentional fire at the Bernard biological field station in Pomona. They found that fires did alter the composition of plant communities , favoring native and nonnative forb species over grasses, and these conditions remained for the next few years of the study. One variable that really impacted seedling growth and survival outside of fire is drought and rainfall which the study did not include. This article is important to me becuase it studies how fire can impact grasslands in Southern California. Glassman, S. I., Randolph, J. W. J., Saroa, S. S., Capocchi, J. K., Walters, K. E., Pulido-Chavez, M. F., & Larios, L. (2023). Prescribed versus wildfire impacts on exotic plants and soil microbes in California grasslands. Applied Soil Ecology, 185, 104795. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2022.104795 This study looks at the effects of natural and prescribed fires soil microbe community at grassland sites in Riverside county. This study is important becuase it shows how fires (natural and prescribed) can impact bacterial and fungal communties in grassland habitat in Southern California. What are the impacts of natural or wildfires on the plant community in Southern California grasslands? Does fire help improve biodiversity? Pausas, J. G., & Keeley, J. E. (2019). Wildfires as an ecosystem service. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17(5), 289–295. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2044 Provides good primary source information on why it is important to consider fire as a useful tool or ecoystem service for habitat restoration.
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Karen KyutokuHow does plant diversity shifts scross different stress gradients?Callaway, Brooker, R. W., Choler, P., Kikvidze, Z., Lortie, C. J., Michalet, R., Paolini, L., Pugnaire, F. I., Newingham, B., Aschehoug, E. T., Armas, C., Kikodze, D., & Cook, B. J. (2002). Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress. Nature (London), 417(6891), 844–848. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00812The article discusses impacts of neighboring plants at different elevation sites. I am particularly interested in plants' facilitation mechanisms at high stress environments, and how does the interactions among plants shift their community compositions.Richardson, MacDougall, A. S., Stanley, A. G., Kaye, T. N., & Dunwiddie, P. W. (2012). Inversion of plant dominance-diversity relationships along a latitudinal stress gradient. Ecology (Durham), 93(6), 1431–1438. https://doi.org/10.1890/11-1290.1The article discusses importance of facilitation mechanisms among plants and how does it regulate plant diversity.Duarte, Verdú, M., Cavieres, L. A., & Bustamante, R. O. (2021). Plant–plant facilitation increases with reduced phylogenetic relatedness along an elevation gradient. Oikos, 130(2), 248–259. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.07680
This research compares facilitative and competitive interactions among plants at high elevation sites.How does facilitation regulates plant diversity at high elevation sites?
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Maritza LopezDoes plant diversity impact plant productivity or soil nutrients? Furey, George N, and David Tilman. “Plant Biodiversity and the Regeneration of Soil Fertility.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 118.49 (2021): 1–. Web.This article focuses on the impacts that plant biodiversity has on soil fertility .PLANT-SOIL FEEDBACKS IN A GRASSLAND ECOSYSTEM: EFFECTS OF PLANT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS AND SOIL FERTILITY https://soar.wichita.edu/bitstream/handle/10057/23456/t22015_Luu.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yThis article evaluates the impacts different plant communities (legumes, forbes, graminoids) have on soil biota.https://elifesciences.org/articles/41228This article studies how plant biodiversity impacts nitrogen, carbon,
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Christian romeroFire disturbance on beta vs alpha diversity?https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=alpha+vs+beta++plant+diversity&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1681232870963&u=%23p%3D3shub90cmpEJThe article e,plains and test for the way low and high fire affect alpha and beta diversity. It further explains how it could be use as a restoration factor for diversity. As well as to raise structural heterogeneity https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=alpha+vs+beta++plant+diversity+fire+disturbance&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1681233193598&u=%23p%3Del7iVV9cWQYJarticle explains the way seasonal fire affects and impacts forbs in theor spatial distribution . Furthermore different species of forbs reacted differently to the fire treatments. The fire disturbances make forbs be less dominant against grasses. The season at which this fires occur can also have a big influence in the diversity. Their conclusion demonstrated how the forbs were affect more in spring and fall fires rather than in summer.https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=20&q=fire+disturbance+alpha+plant&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&t=1681234022820&u=%23p%3DTJSV_6arL3wJThis article studies fire affect of diversity. It was demonstrated that fire disturbance decreased richness in alpha diversity but increased beta diversity. Furthermore it creates spatial variarity between plantsDoes fire disturbances have a direct Influence in both alpha and beta diversity in the souther california area?
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Maryam ShehabHow do microbial communitites increase soil health and plant diversity?https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01139.xThis article explains the role of micorbes on regulating plant productivity throught minerlaization and competetion for nutrients. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-90-481-9513-8_11https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02183056this article talks about the relationships between soil quality and microbial diversity.
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Monica HernandezDoes the Three Sisters method increase crop productivity compared to agricultural methods being used todayhttps://link-springer-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/article/10.1007/s10460-022-10336-zThis paper highlights the importance this method has on soil health by studying the affects intercropping has on soil respiration, soil nitrate, microbial carbon to nitrate ration https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2106382118This paper explains the importance of intercropping in such a demanding market. The benefits it has on decreasing out environmental footprint.https://www-sciencedirect-com.mimas.calstatela.edu/science/article/pii/S0378377420301402This paper focuses on the water use benefits of intercropping. Experimenting on cotton/mung bean intercropping.How does intercropping influence soil health and water use efficiency in an urban landscape?
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