User:Jameschem/sandbox

Wetland Disturbance[edit]

Wetlands, the functions and services they provide as well as their flora and fauna, can be affected by several types of disturbances. The disturbances (sometimes termed stressors or alterations) can be human-associated or natural, direct or indirect, reversible or not, and isolated or cumulative. When exceeding levels or patterns normally found within wetlands of a particular class in a particular region, the predominant ones include the following

• Enrichment/Eutrophication
• Organic Loading and Reduced Dissolved Oxygen
• Contaminant Toxicity
• Acidification
• Salinization
• Sedimentation
• Altered Solar Input (Turbidity/Shade)
• Vegetation Removal
• Thermal Alteration
• Dehydration/Aridification
• Inundation/Flooding
• Habitat Fragmentation
• Other Human Presence

Disturbances can be further categorized as follows:

Minor disturbance

Stress that maintains ecosystem integrity.

Moderate disturbance

Ecosystem integrity is damaged but can recover in time without assistance.

Impairment or severe disturbance

Human intervention may be needed in order for ecosystem to recover.

Just a few of the many sources of these disturbances are

• • Drainage
  • Development
  • Over-grazing
  • Mining
  • Unsustainable water use
• They can be manifested partly as:
  • Water Scarcity
  • Impacts to Endangered species
  • Disruption of wildlife breeding grounds
  • Imbalance in sediment load and nutrient filtration

Water Chemistry

Anthropocentric nitrogen inputs to aquatic systems have drastically effected the dissolved nitrogen content of wetlands, introducing higher nutrient availability which leads to eutrophication., Due to the low dissolved oxygen (DO) content, and relatively low nutrient balance of wetland environments, they are very susceptible to alterations in water chemistry. Key factors that are assessed to determine water quality include:

• Major Anion Analysis: (HCO₃^-,Cl^-,NO₃^-,SO₄^2-)
• Major Cation Analysis (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺)
• pH
• Conductivity- Conductivity increases with more dissolved ions in the water
• Turbidity
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Temperature
• Total Dissolved Solids

These chemical factors can be used to quantify wetland disturbances, and often provide information as to whether a wetland is surface water fed or groundwater fed due to the different ion characteristics of the two water sources. Wetlands are adept at impacting the water chemistry of streams or water bodies that interact with them, and can withdraw ions that result from water pollution such as acid mine drainage or urban runoff. ,

Article Selection

Bio-based material

This article does not cite any sources, and I feel that it is an important intersection of chemistry and the commercial world. As I feel that chemistry has not fully adapted to a modern and transforming world, it would be interesting to write about how certain chemical processes can address modern needs.

Wikipedia:Requested articles/Natural sciences/Chemistry

This article requests several pesticides as articles that users want written. I am currently in an invasive species management class, so I thought it could be an interesting complement to that course to look in depth at the chemical mechanisms of action by which a certain pesticide works. Examples of articles suggested are: Comparative toxicity of pesticides, dicyclohexylitaconate, dichloran, Woody weedkiller, and Cimexa.

uridine

This article is listed in the chemistry portal as being a stub, and has a request for expansion. As a common biological molecule, 16 sources seems slightly short for one of the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

wetland

This article does not have an established section on soil or water chemistry in wetlands. While the article has 103 sources, chemistry of water and soil determines the survival and characteristics of the wetland, so this would be an interesting article to work on. I also study pitcher plants in wetlands, so doing this literature review would give me a more comprehensive understanding of my own research.

Article Evaluation

2008 K2 disaster

This article seems to mostly focus on a chronological narrative format that results from eyewitness accounts from the several day period during which several deaths occurred at K2. The article seems relevant to the topic, although perhaps more information specifically about K2 could be included alongside the narrative to provide readers with a more solid background.

The tone is almost conversational, with eyewitness accounts presenting the bulk of the information in the article. As a result of these uncertain an anecdotal accounts, much uncertainty is expressed throughout the article.

The links in the citations worked, and referred to a diverse list of articles describing the event. Included in the source list is the New York Times, BBC News, and Reuters. Considering the nature of this article, and the fact that it focuses on a singular event that was not in the spotlight of media outlets or organizations, it seems that the only available source of information for such an event is eyewitness accounts taken immediately after.

Of note, is that there is a tag above the article body requesting additional citations for verification. Noted in the talk page is the fact that the article is of low priority importance to three active wikiprojects. The talk page heavily focuses on the uncertainty surrounding the events on the mountain during the disaster, and references that most available interviews are directly from fatigued climbers who phoned in off of the mountain.