Essays
Essays
Three essays have been scheduled for the year.
For your essays, you will be given five papers as your only source of references. When referencing pay attention to the problems of plagiarism (see Rhodes policy on plagiarism available from the RU website or in the document).
Your essay should be typed in MSWord and contain 2000 - 2500 words.
References must be in format of African Journal of Marine Science.
The essay topics and deadline dates are:
Friday 23th March - Lecturer: Tony Booth
How fish utilise vortices when swimming
- Sfakiotakis et al. Review of fish swimming modes for aquatic locomotion
- Muller et al. How the body contributes to the wake in undulatory fish swimming: flow field of a swimming eel (Anguilla anguilla)
- Lao et al. Fish exploiting vortices decrease muscle activity
- Linden and Turner ‘Optimal’ vortex rings and aquatic propulsion mechanisms
- Lauder and Drucker Forces, fishes, and fluids: hydrodynamic mechanisms of aquatic locomotion
Friday 18th May - Lecturer: Horst Kaiser
Provide a comparative description of the mechanism of respiration for mammals and teleosts and explain the anatomical and physiological limitations fish have to overcome in order to take up oxygen from the aquatic environment and release carbon dioxide.
- Carvalho & Gonçalves 2011. Comparative Physiology of the Respiratory System in the Animal Kingdom
- Maina 2000. Comparative Respiratory Morphology: Themes and Principles in the Design and Construction of the Gas Exchangers
- Milsom 2010. Adaptive trends in respiratory control: a comparative perspective
- Klein & Codd 2010. Breathing and locomotion: Comparative anatomy, morphology and function
- Farell et al. 2009. Fish cardiorespiratory physiology in an era of climate change
Friday 31st August - Lecturer: Pete Britz
Essay title: Is the Lake Victoria ecosystem functional?
Guidelines
The objective of this essay is not to write a description of the Lake Victoria ecosystem. It is to teach you essay writing skills. Apart from the learning associated with the essay content, writing skills are a life skill which will empower you to do well in the subjects of your choice and to realise better career opportunities when you leave university. An essay is not a description of a situation, it is an evidence-based commentary and series of arguments in which you use logic and science to present an opinion or perspective on an issue.
This essay requires you to evaluate the evidence presented in five papers and argue a position on whether the Lake Victoria ecosystem can be considered functional. As young scientists, you need to learn to take the descriptive evidence you find and use it to logically motivate/ argue an opinion/ point of view/ conclusion.
Structure you essay using the following guidelines:
- Write an introductory paragraph which contextualises the Lake Victoria “problem” in general terms, and outlines to the reader how you will address the essay question (Is Lake Victoria a functional ecosystem?) in the body of the essay. Always remember to include a commentary which basically tells the reader what to expect and where you are going to take him with your essay.
- Definitions are important so the reader understands clearly what you mean in your arguments. Therefore, in your second paragraph define what you consider a functional ecosystem to be – which was essential to setting up your evaluation of evidence to determine whether Lake Victoria is functional or not. You may choose ONE extra reference not in the literature provided to cite in support of your definition.
- In the essay body write clear paragraphs on the basic issues (the descriptive part) e.g. Lakes history and characteristics, reasons for the introduction, eutrophication etc. Most of you did this well, but some did not structure their paragraphs properly. Remember to always begin with a paragraph “topic sentence” which summarises the paragraphs main point or theme. Then, elaborate/ unpack this theme in the paragraph body. Conclude your paragraph with a concluding (analytical) or a “linking” sentence (analytical) which leads on the theme of the next paragraph.
- Once you have presented your evidence, write a concluding discussion (the analytical part) in which you weigh up the evidence for and against Lake Victoria being a functional ecosystem. Evidence against: e.g. reduced biodiversity, eutrophication, anoxic regions and habitat loss, simplified food chains etc. Evidence for: e.g. species and trophic shifts indicating adaptation, maintenance of productivity of biomass, cichlid return in more generalised phenotype etc. It is essential to refer to the evidence you describe in the essay body to support your opinion on whether the lake is a functional ecosystem or not.
Prescribed Literature
- Balirwa SJ, Chapman CA, Chapman LJ, Cowx IG, Geheb K, Kaufman, L, Lowe-McConnell, RH, Seehausen O, Wanink JH, Welcomme RL, Witte F. 2003 Biodiversity and fishery sustainability in the Lake Victoria basin: an unexpected marriage? Bioscience 53(8): 703-715.
- Goldschmidt T, Witte F, Wanink JH. 1993. Cascading effects of the intriduced Nile perch on the detritivorous/ planktivorous. Conservation Biology7(3): 686-700.
- Goudswaard PC, Wite F, Katunzi EFB. 2002. The tilapiine fish stock of Lake Victoria before and after the Nile perch upsurge. Journal of Fish Biology60: 838-700.
- Kitchell JF, Schindler DE, Ogutu-Owayo R, Reinthal RP. 1997. The Nile perch is Lake Victoria: interactions between predation and fisheries. Ecological Applications 7(2): 653-664.
- Seehausen O, van Alphen JJM, Witte F. 1997. Cichlid fish diversity threatened by eutrophication that curbs sexual selection. Science, New series 277 (5333): 1808-1811.
