Fresh Water Affects on Dragonflies

Kendra Bester

In this paper I will be comparing and analyzing the differences between the target article “Dragonflies go thirsty in the Mediterranean” in comparison and contrast to the primary research literature published by IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. In the article “Dragonflies go thirsty in the Mediterranean” it talked about how dragonflies are threatened by extinction because of a decrease in fresh water in the Mediterranean region.

After thorough investigation, of both the primary research literature and the target article, there was some contrast between the two sources. The primary research evidently had a lot more background information regarding the matter. Where as the target article was more likely to talk about the positive absolute results of the research, while leaving out contributing factors and errors that might of made the experiment and research not as accurate. Such as in the primary research it talks about “Six species (4% of the total assessed) could not be assessed due to a lack of information regarding their past or current distribution, and are therefore categorized as Data Deficient.” (Riservato, Boudot, Ferreira, et al, 2009) The six species that were not assessed due to the lack of information, made the research of dragonflies extinction less accurate. Which is why the target article did not mention this information because the author wants the article to give off an aura of precision and legitimacy. The target article also leaves out important facts about how “ conservation status of plants and animals is one of the most widely used indictors for assessing the condition and biodiversity of an ecosystem.” (Riservato, Boudot, Ferreira, et al, 2009) This fact would of been good to explain to the audience about why the research was conducted and about how the extinction of dragonflies is providing awareness to the world about the depletion of fresh water supply. Furthermore the primary research uses a more concrete scientific approach to displaying the research, by using scientific language along with graphs and charts. Where the target article uses basic language to describe the research found to the general public, that may or may not have a scientific background. This basic language gives the general public the capacity to comprehend the subject matter of the article.

Although both the primary research literature and the target article had much differentiation in the amount of information and how the information was displayed. The information that was presented in both was all the same. Meaning that the target article did not exaggerate the information given in the primary literature. The target article just took the key points of the exact information given and organized to make a summary of the research done by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. This summary may have been more general and somewhat less scientific but both target article and primary source still presented the information in the same context.

After comparing and analyzing the differences between the target article “Dragonflies go thirsty in the Mediterranean” in comparison and contrast to the primary research literature published by IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. It is evident that the primary research literature and the target article, both generate and present that same type of research. However the target leaves out much information, that is important to the research study, but not as important to the general public.

References

"Dragonflies go thirsty in the Mediterranean." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(2009): 1-1. Surfbirds News. Web. 6 Oct. 2009. <http://www.surfbirds.com/sbirdsnews/archives/2009/10/dragonflies_go.html>.

Riservato, Elisa, Jean-Pierre Boudot, Sonia Ferreira, Miloš Jović, Vincent J. Kalkman, Wolfgang Schneider, Boudjéma Samraoui, and Annabelle Cuttelod. THE STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION OF DRAGONFLIES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN. Publication. Gland: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), 2009. Print.