ecology lab research paper

Instructions

Use this document in conjunction with the detailed writing guide (posted to this same folder), and the graphing and stats tutorials/activities that we have already done in this course. This document only covers some basic formatting and other notes to remember. This is worth a large part of your grade (100 points, 25% of your grade!), so put your full effort into it.  A text or .R file of the R-script that you used to make graphs and run statistics. If you turn in incomplete work, it will be sent right back to you. It will end up being considered a late assignment and will not be graded until you submit it in complete form. Basic requirements of the assignment – A minimum of 10 pages focusing on the research project you performed with your group during the last 2 fieldtrips. The 10 pages includes your title page, literature cited section, and your figure legends page, but does not include the pages of figures (aka graphs) at the end of the manuscript. -This paper, the graphs and the statistics should be performed and submitted individually. -Include a minimum of 5 references from original research articles that you have read (review articles and book chapters are also fine to cite but they do not count towards the 5 references). These should be parenthetical citations within the text and the full citation should be in the Literature Cited section at the end. -Follow a topic sentence approach to structuring paragraphs. General formatting (do not ignore this simple stuff… it is silly to lose points on it) -The papers should be formatted to generally follow the guidelines for submission of manuscripts to the journal Ecology, published by the ecological society of America. You can look at some of their recent publications for an idea of the rough outline and other formatting. But, remember that you are writing a manuscript, so it will look different than the type-set final article. You should generally be fine if you just follow the guidelines in this document and in the corresponding detailed document on writing a research manuscript. -Double spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman) ,1 inch margins -Include page numbers and line numbers. Line numbers should be continuous, and not start over on each page. If you don’t know how to insert line numbers, look into it. Don’t just ask your instructor before you have put time into it. -Here is an example of the current format that the journal Ecology wants for parenthetical citations. Note where the comas are and the use of “&” instead of “and”. Use “et al” for 3 or more authors. If more than one citation is listed, include the semicolon between them. Consequently, our understanding of metacommunities is, more often than not, scale dependent (Heino et al., 2015; Leibold & Chase, 2018). -The following is an example of the current formatting for the Literature Cited section in the journal Ecology. Jamie thinks there is too much unnecessary extra stuff, but we will use this format for our papers. Waltz, A. M., and T. G. Whitham. 1997. “Plant Development Affects Arthropod Communities: Opposing Impacts of Species Removal.” Ecology 7: 2133-2144. -Do not included quoted material! You should paraphrase and cite it parenthetically. Paper structure outline The sections of the paper should be outlined as follows. Don’t ignore this either!!!! Between each of the following sections/subsections, add a single line space. -Page 1 Title Author line -Page 2 Abstract Keywords -Page 3-10 (or higher) Introduction Materials and methods (with three subsections) Study system Sampling methods Statistical analyses Results Discussion Literature cited Figure legends (in order, on one page) -After page 10 or higher Figures (AKA graphs. Each one on a different page, include only the words “Figure XX” on the upper line of each pager for each figure. Of course, “XX” should be replaced with the number of the figure)