Reading Research Articles

In this learning block, you learned that one of the strategies for reading and understanding scholarly articles is to read them more than once. In learning block 2-4, you will be reading the following article to look at the topic of air pollution through the lens of Natural Science: Carbon Uptake and Air Pollution Mitigation of Difference Evergreen Species.

To practice reading and understanding scholarly articles, use the steps outlined in the Steps for Reading a Scholarly Article document and review the article above. Then, answer the following questions in a short response:

Discuss what steps you found to be the easiest.
Discuss what you are finding most difficult about reading and understanding the article.
Were there any parts of the article that you did not understand? If so, identify them for your instructor.
In your own words, what do you think is the main idea of the article?

Carbon Uptake and Air Pollution Mitigation of Different Evergreen Shrub Species.

Authors:

Mori, Jacopo1,2 [email protected]

Fini, Alessio1

Burchi, Gianluca1

Ferrini, Francesco2

Source:

Arboriculture & Urban Forestry. Sep2016, Vol. 42 Issue 5, p329-345. 17p.

Document Type:

Article

Subject Terms:

*Air pollution

*Shrubs

*Carbon dioxide

*Plant species

*Effect of drought on plants

Author-Supplied Keywords:

Arbutus unedo L.

CO2 Assimilation

Drought

Elaeagnus ebbingei L.

Italy

Laurus nobilis L.

Leaf Deposition

Ligustrum japonicum Thunb.

Meteorological Parameters

Photinia fraseri Dress

Relative Growth Rate

Seasonal Trend

Shrub

Trace Metals

Traffic Pollution

Viburnum tinus subsp. lucidum L.

Viburnum tinus subsp. tinus L.

NAICS/Industry Codes:

325120 Industrial Gas Manufacturing

111421 Nursery and Tree Production

Abstract (English):

Three independent experiments assessed CO2 assimilation and metals leaf deposition of seven evergreen shrub sspecies (Arbutus unedo L., Elaeagnus ebbingei L., Laurus nobilis L., Ligustrum japonicum Thunb., Photinia fraseri Dress., Viburnum tinus subsp. lucidum L., and Viburnum tinus subsp. tinus L.). CO2 assimilation and carbon allocation were determined in 2011 (Exp. 1) under optimal water availability and in 2012 (Exp. 2) under drought on potted plants. A third experiment (Exp. 3) measured seasonal leaf depositions of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in 2011 on plants transplanted in proximity of a four-lane road. E. ebbingei showed the highest CO2 assimilation under optimal water availability but one of the lowest under drought (Exp. 1, 2). Conversely, P. fraseri had intermediate CO2 assimilation but it declined less during drought compared to the other species. In Experiment 3, E. ebbingei showed the highest metal deposition, mainly due to its greater leaf area. Greater rainfall and RH% decreased metal depositions, whilst greater wind velocity and air temperature increased leaf depositions. Species which drastically reduce CO2 assimilation under drought (V. tinus subsp. lucidum, L. japonicum, E. ebbingei) are not recommended in droughtprone environments, where drought-tolerant “mesic” species (P. fraseri), should be preferred. E. ebbingei could be used to optimize deposition of metals. The three experiments provide useful insights especially about CO2 assimilation (Exp. 1, 2) and air pollution mitigation (Exp. 3) of widely used shrubs for application in urban areas and planning of roadside greening in southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5 hours ago

REQUIREMENTS

Liberal Arts ids 100 description 1 pages, Single Spacing

Answer preview…………

1. Discuss what steps you found to be the easiest.
Studiers of Natural Science have the task of studying nature and going through research to prepare themselves for the vast task that awaits them in their careers. Therefore, they have to develop the skills necessary to read understand and interpret research that has been done by other researchers in the past. As a student of the field, I am no different. For the particular assignment, I had to read and understand the research by Mori and colleagues that was published in 2016. The paper is titled Carbon Uptake and Air Pollution Mitigation of Different Evergreen Shrub Species (Mori et al., 2016). I had to follow some steps to understand the paper appropriately. The first step of reading the article was reading the abstract. The abstract gives an idea of what the whole of the article talks about. Therefore, during the exercise, it was important because it helped understand the detailed bits of the paper when I went through the whole of it. After reading the abstract, I quickly perused through the whole paper before finally reading it slowly and systematically for optimum understanding. During the reading, there are some words that I did not understand. I noted the words down and used the dictionary and the internet to understand their meaning. Most of the keywords were supplied by the author and by clicking the word, I was able to get their definitions and therefore understand their significance in the paper……….
APA 682 words