Talk:Alnus rubra

"The largest in America" does not automatically mean "the largest in the world"

I replaced "the world's largest species of alder" by "the largest species of alder in North America and one of the largest in the world". The Alnus rubra site say the tallest A. rubra is officially 32 metres tall. The tallest measured Alnus glutinosa subsp. glutinosa in Finland is 32 metres tall (Väre, H. & Kiuru, H. 2006: Suomen puut ja pensaat (=Trees and shrubs of Finland). Metsäkustannus, Helsinki.), and in Central Europe the species grows even taller, but I haven't found information about the tallest measured specimens. In moist forests along the Caspian coast in northern Iran I have found giant specimens of A. glutinosa subsp. barbata which greatly exceed in size all the A. glutinosa subsp. glutinosa trees I have seen in Europe and also all the A. rubra trees I have seen in the Pacific Northwest of North America, but again: exact measurements are missing. I am not saying A. glutinosa is the largest alder species. But surely we have not information about world's alders enough to say A. rubra is the largest. However, it is safe to say A. rubra and A. glutinosa both are in the largest size class of the alders. Krasanen (talk) 12:19, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I found the height record for A. glutinosa in Germany: 37.4 metres. http://www.mluv.brandenburg.de/cms/detail.php/lbm1.c.189715.de Krasanen (talk) 16:17, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

=="Poineer Species --> Pioneer Species" Spelling Change == --Urahozer (talk) 03:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Genetic Diversity

Some references for genetic diversity of the red alder (Alnus rubra). 1. Hughes, A., Inouye, B., Johnson, M., Underwood, N., & Vellend, M. (2008). Ecological consequences of genetic diversity. Ecology Letters, 609-623.

2. Crutsinger, G. (2006). Plant Genotypic Diversity Predicts Community Structure and Governs an Ecosystem Process. Science, 966-968.

3. Withrow-Robinson, B. A., & Johnson, R. (2006). Selecting native plant materials for restoration projects: ensuring local adaptation and maintaining genetic diversity. Corvallis, Or.: Extension Service, Oregon State University.

4. Xie, C. Y. (2008). Ten-year results from red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) provenance-progeny testing and their implications for genetic improvement. New forests, 36(3), 273-284.

5. Another article: Ager, A. A., Heilman, P. E., & Stettler, R. F. (1993). Genetic variation in red alder (Alnus rubra) in relation to native climate and geography. Canadian Journal Of Forest Research, 23(9), 1930. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fins42 (talk • contribs) 13:40, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Fins42 (talk) 02:38, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Are there any popsci or online resources you could use for your article?Evol&Glass (talk) 19:24, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Added a section on Genetic Diversity. Fins42 (talk) 13:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Commenting on Genetic Diversity Section.

First paragraph: What does allozyme variation in Drosophila have to do with Alnus rubra? Explain more on how Drosophila and Alnus rubra are similar in terms of genetic diversity. Drosophila is not endangered; Alnus rubra is. “Endangered species tend to have a smaller amount of individuals in the population” – No need to state the obvious.

Second Paragraph: “Differences in DNA” – Does this mean the same as genetic variation? I think it does, but in a more broad and ambiguous way. No need to change the term and create unnecessary confusion. Briefly explain why an organism’s range of habitat is positively correlated with genetic variation. “Which would result in a small amount of genetic diversity.” – Sentence fragment; please connect with the prior sentence.

Third Paragraph: Explain why ecological effects on important traits for the species cannot be assumed. “This means that if there is low genetic diversity there could be inbreeding” – Clarify the causal relationship between low genetic diversity and inbreeding. Right now it seems as you’re saying low genetic diversity could cause inbreeding. According to our class discussion, inbreeding leads to low genetic diversity, not vice versa. “and this could lead to few differences in key ecological traits” – It feels like this whole sentence is circling around; ‘low genetic diversity could cause inbreeding, which could lead to low diversity in ecological trait’. Please clarify.

Fourth Paragraph: “Genetic diversity is the amount of genetic variation in population.” – Shouldn’t this be in the first paragraph? You have been talking about genetic diversity all along and suddenly you decide to introduce the definition now. Also missing ‘a’ before population. “whether induced by humans or natural” – natural should be nature. “in the environment there needs to be genetic diversity” – Change the wording to ‘there needs to be genetic diversity in the environment’. “with a early bud break” – ‘a’ should be ‘an’.

Fifth Paragraph: “More populations tend to flock towards plant species that have more genetic diversity.” – What’s the reason behind? Please specify. “When the number of herbivore populations increases this, in turn, causes the number of predator populations to go up, leading to a rise in the number of species in the area.” – Add a comma, since it’s confusing. ‘~ populations increases, this , in turn, causes~’. “leading to a rise in the number of species in the area.” – Number of which species? If the number of predators go up, then the number of herbivores will go down. Please explain. “This was shown through a study of the plant, Solidago altissima.” – Explain how relevant Solidago altissima is to Alnus rubra. Is it relevant at all? “The genetic diversity was varied throughout a number of plots and the number of arthropod populations were recorded” – What plots? What arthropod? They just suddenly appear out of nowhere. Explain how all these are related to the topic.

In general: Please link certain terms or concepts to their corresponding Wikipedia article. For example, Genetic Variation instead of just Genetic Variation.

Khzzang9 (talk)