Peer Review
Reviewed by Michael Railling
Wildlife and Fisheries Science Major
Title: Effects of Chironomidae (Diptera) Taxonomic Resolution on Multivariate Analysis of Aquatic Insect Communities.
Authors: Douglas A. Wymer and S. Bradford Cook
Overview: Identification of Chironomidae to genus
is necessary to detect subtle changes in benthic communities. Insect communities were sampled
quantitatively from four streams in the
Discriminate analysis was applied to access stream variability habitat and water quality, taxon to family, and taxon to genus. Numbers were compared and streams were identified using taxa. The correct streams were more accurately identified when Chironomids were identifies to genus.
Critique: The article, Effects of Chironomidae (Diptera) Taxonomic Resolution on Multivariate
Analysis of Aquatic Insect Communities was consistant with the chain of
events throughout the paper. The title
was very descriptive of what they were trying to prove. That genus level identification is important
is assessing a stream. Eight different
sources were used is the introduction and all of them supported the objective
statement. All of the literature used was from sources that were published over
one year ago. The methods and materials
section was very complete. Many
different works were sited in this section.
All of the research was well described for future replication. Results were in the same order as the methods
and materials. The paper was complete,
however difficult to follow because of the complicatedness of the
research. I had to read the paper
several times to grasp the purpose of the paper. Most of the statistical analysis was done by
Michael Allan, a statistics teacher at tech.
One who has difficulty understanding statistical analysis may get lost
in the tables and figures. The
discussion was very straight forward.
The discussion directly supported what was found in the results. After reading it I better understood the
results section. The discussion had six
different articles supporting the paper.
In the end the objective statement was proven correct. In all I think that the paper was very
beneficial. Many people only identify Chironomids
to family because they are hard to identify.
This research show’s that all insects need to be identified to genus in
order to accurately access the habitat.