Discussion assignemnt on the paper by Panzer & Schwartz 2000 (For the class Biological Diversity
Answer the following questions (10 pts.):
Clarify terms
Contrast F-M and F-E sites.
Describe the Fire Attrition Hypothesis (FAH) in your own words.
Contrast remnant-dependent (r-d) and remnant independent species.
What is meant by a “conservative” prairie species?
In your opinion, what is the most important reason given by the authors in the Introduction to justify the importance of the research, and why?
Methods: How did the authors obtain the data or samples for this study? What surprised you about their collection methods, and why?
Do the methods require significant knowledge, equipment, or training? Justify your answer.
Review Figure 2 and do the following.
Summarize what you think can be concluded by the data in the figure. Support your answer by describing the data that allow you to come to that conclusion.
Write a question about the figure. Your question could be about an aspect of the figure or data that is unclear. Or, your question could be about something that you would like more information about that is unanswered by the data in the figure.
Similarly, summarize and write a question about Figure 3 as you did for Figure 2 above.
What did you learn from reading the Results section that you did not learn from simply reviewing Figures 2 and 3? Describe.
What, in your opinion, are two important points made in the Discussion section? Explain why you think each of those points are important.
You will have the opportunity to visit Gensburg-Markham Prairie (one of the sites where this research was conducted) and to meet the people who did the research! Write two questions that you would like to ask them about this research project or about management of natural areas such as tall-grass prairies. For each question, explain why you would like to know the answer.
