In my group, Protect the Primates, I noticed linguistic differences and modes of expression during our project. I have different background with my group member. I did my primary school in Africa and I also speaks two different languages, French and Wolof. As the result, I usually translate my expression in those language to English to communicate ton them. Therefore, sometimes they have a difficult to understand me. It usually happens verbally when we exchanged ideas about the assignments. Fortunately, we usually take our time to make sure that we understand each other.

The act of reviewing the work we did in class helped me a lot and added knowledge to my revisions. English is my fourth language and I am still learning it, so in my writing, I have difficulty to pattern words and sentences correctly or sometimes I lacked vocabulary to express myself. More importantly, I usually make grammar mistakes. As the result, the peer review helped me solve most of these issues and improved my vocabulary because I often learned new words by taking, revising or editing with my peer.

In my literature review, we did write a lot of information with their details to make sure that we shows the readers that we know what we were researching about.. For example, our topic was Protect the Primates, so, we wrote many different aspects or sections on it: the history of the primates and their connection with humans, human activities that affect primates, primates in endangered and causes leading to it, and how to protect the primates, solution and methods. Basically, we covered everything on primates in our literature review. Oppositely to our presentation, our audience played a big role in our work, because we wanted to make sure that the audience get the message easily. For example, in our infographic, we focused only in the causes and solutions for deforestation because it the main cause for primates endangered and also targeted our audience, college students. The connections we made between college students and deforestation were: cutting down trees to make papers lead to deforestation, applying 3Rs to papers use helps reduce deforestation, and motivate students to volunteers for reforestation.

In our group, we did develop methods of collaborating with each other. First, we exchange phone numbers which facilitated our communication. We created a group chat and it is use because we became friends now not just team member. We used to set our appointment or discussed together by the group chat. Here are some examples:

I did gain more knowledge about how to use the CCNY Library Website during this project. I learned lot about primary articles, how to find them and check their credibility, hows to analysis articles through discussion with my group member. We used google docs and group chat to exchange ideas.

In my writing, I did formulate and articulate a stance though the process. I did give my point of view in some subject that should be changed or improved. Here is an example from my paper:

 

“Beyond sharing a close evolutionary history with humans, primates contribute importantly to the biological and cultural richness and the natural heritage of the countries in which they occur. As primates become locally rare or extinct, we risk losing complex ecological, social, and cultural relationships that have developed between humans and primates over millennia (Estrada et al. Sci. Adv. 2017). As discussed above, primate species richness is strongly correlated with the extent of of close forest cover across African countries. Primates comprise between 25 and 40% of frugivore biomass in tropical forest (Colin A. Chapman et al, 2016).  In order to advance conservation efforts in Africa will based on: political and socio-economic and introducing new models.”

      I used the CCNY library databases to do my research. Our topic, Protect the Primates,  was to broad, so I had difficulty to find choose specific sources needed. To solve that, I applied the filtration, meaning selecting only the range of dates, region, and other aspects that help reduce the results. For example, this source below, I found it one search at CCNY Library, then I look to the database and typed the keyword “Primate in Africa”. There were lot of article but i wanted to focus one cause and effect of primates endangered, so i looked for those are related, then i read their abstracts to get ideas on them. Finally, I look look how many people cited the articles to checked for credibility.

 

“Impact of Gun-Hunting on Monkey Species and Implications for Primate Conservation on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.” Biological Conservation, Elsevier, 22 Mar. 2016, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716300787.

 

In my literature, I was required to at sources in different way. To present a credible work, I was more aware of the credibility of the sources. Aslo, I was aware about bias or propaganda about the sources because I did not want to mislead people.

The effects of human activity in certain heavily forested areas can be felt now more than ever on several different levels as the rate of deforestation and forest fragmentation has increased consistently in recent years. The overall dynamic of these deforested areas has changed drastically and has directly impacted certain primate species as some may be unable to adapt, hence leading to their endangerment and possible extinction. The effects of this increasing human activity however can be seen in how the ecosystem is affected at the surface and how it affects the ecosystem on an unseen, but more biological level.

When a forested area is being fragmented, there tends to be certain types of trees that survive and some that don’t adapt to the changing environment well. This is mainly based on where a tree is located in the newly created forest fragment. Usually trees that were towards the inward part of a forest surrounded by other trees, but suddenly put in an isolated state on the edge of a fragment are subject to a high mortality rate.These trees suddenly put on the edge of a fragment are exposed to new factors such as high speed winds, light, and animals which lower the survival rate.

This alone alters the tree dynamic of a forest and has the potential the ruin the ecosystem that local species know as home, as prefered trees may be killed and an overall shift in the forest’s composition may occur. Certain species of primates have been unable to adapt to the sudden change and it has not only impacted their survival rate, but also the overall ecosystem that they live in. Primates play a key role in balancing out certain ecosystems in different regions of the world and providing less of them or completely removing them may create an unbalance among other organisms in the same ecosystem.

Certain primates are primarily herbivores and can benefit any plants living in the same ecosystem as them. While too much plant consumption can be negative for the plant’s survival rate it is very common that these plants, over time, develop a defense mechanism, helping them survive. Some plants that were being constantly consumed over time have developed a type of toxin in their leaves to discourage animals from eating them. Certain primates also consume plant seeds however, causing certain plants over time to develop seeds with a harder outer shell making them less susceptible to consumption. This harder shell gives a plant seed a better chance of traveling unharmed as primates tend to disperse them, therefore allowing the same plant to grow and expand in several different locations.

Primates also have the potential to spread a plant’s pollen in a similar process as how they spread a plant’s seeds. Primates are usually attracted to a plant’s nectar and in the process of gathering a plant’s nectar they get covered in pollen which spreads to whatever ground they cover. The way they spread seeds and pollen make primates a key factor in tree growth and regeneration in whatever forest they are located in which makes them even more vital in this new age of deforestation and forest fragmentation. As the rate of human activities increases forested areas are being downsized and primates, who have the ability to help, are also endangered from it.

 

How saving papers can help primates?

 

Paper is made from woods which is a factor contributing to deforestation. Due to the poor governance of many countries, people are allowed to cut down trees in order to sell it to industries which they will later fabrique papers. According to data founded on Quora.com it takes 12 trees to make one ton of 100 percent non-recycled newsprint. It would take a little more than half a tree to make a carton (10 reams) of 100 percent, non-recycled 20-lb. copier paper. One tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper, or 8,333.3 sheets. One ream (500 sheets) uses 6 percent of a tree. Finally, it is estimated that 3 billion to 6 billion trees are cut down  per year. Based on this, it can be concluded that saving paper means reducing deforestation and protecting primates habitat.

In an increasingly paperless world however this may soon not be as big an issue as before. The rise of technology has given us access to much in such a little device. Books can be found in electronic versions meaning less will be printed on paper and even notes and messages can be done electronically replacing the need for physical paper filled journals and even letters. Places like libraries and bookstores are slowly becoming obsolete and while this has some downsides, shows that more people are adapting the more convenient and fast paced lifestyle that implementing technology can bring. These are all pretty well known facts already as there are plenty of campaigns out there promoting we recycle and use less paper to save trees, but these refer more to the actual environment, not the actual organisms in it.

Producing paper comes at the expense of trees this is already widely understood, but its not understood that producing paper also comes at the expense of the animals, in our case primates, who live in these forested areas. Paper production fuels deforestation as more trees must be cut down to meet a certain demand. In this process a whole ecosystem is affected and its whole dynamic changes causing problems for the primates that live in it. Some primate species are unable to adapt to the change in their ecosystem and so our paper usage can indirectly lead to their endangerment. We can help make a change and give aid to these primates who are facing possible extinction. All we need to do is be cautious and make a conscious effort to go as paperless as possible hopefully reduce the demand for paper which in turn, will reduce the need for deforestation.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-trees-are-cut-down-a-day-for-paper

 

There are several different human activities that can greatly impact an ecosystem consisting of forested areas, the most impactful being deforestation as it can also lead to other factors indirectly impacting this ecosystem. The rate of deforestation has drastically increased in recent years within several different regions around the world, causing more forests to be divided up into fragments. This has completely altered the ecosystem that local species have come to know and, in the case of primates, we’ve seen that are some are more equipped to handle the change than others either to due to their innate preferences or sudden changes in external hunting pressure.

When researching changes in a forested areas dynamic over time it is necessary to keep track of what the environment looks like over the course of time as well as how certain species respond to any changes and why. A fragmented forest area will naturally experience a change in its tree dynamic which can include certain types of trees growing more rapidly and certain types of trees, perhaps preferred by certain species, to be less abundant. Where these trees now grow places greater importance on the size of each created forest fragment and how isolated it is from other fragments as it is evident that these two factors place a species’ survival on its ability to adapt to the change and also the hunting patterns of local hunting tribes can directly change.

Studies conducted in heavily deforested areas show that primates living in these areas vary greatly in their response to the sudden change. Certain primate species were able to adapt well and did not see a major drop in population size, but other species saw a massive decline and experienced an extremely low survival rate to the point where these primate species are either endangered or even extinct. The big question is why certain primates adapt to these sudden changes in their ecosystem while others can’t and the answer lies in the primates genetic makeup.

Primate species that generally have a larger home range size, meaning they prefer large areas or fragments, adapt well in cases where they can displace to a larger forest fragment, but can’t survive when trapped in a small isolated forest fragment. Certain primates have diets mainly based on fruits and unfortunately deforestation makes certain fruits less abundant, therefore making food less scarce for these species. Primate species that have a wider ranged diet saw a much higher survival rate as they had more options as deforestation made certain foods less abundant. Some primate species have a preference over what time of trees the area contains as they’ve become accustomed to living a certain way and deforestation can make certain types of preferable trees less accessible to these primates.

Forest fragmentation can also indirectly affect local primates with how it alters the behavior and hunting patterns of local tribes. As forests are divided into fragments resources become less accessible to tribes just as they become less accessible to local primates. Hunters also have to travel longer distances now to catch the same amount of prey and must also target more types of primate species that may not have been targeted before, also adding to the endangerment of certain species, However for most tribes hunting has become so difficult due to forest fragmentation that they’ve had to rely on buying their meat from regional traders and merchants, which drive them to increase the rate at which they capture primates. Deforestation and forest fragmentation work cohesively in leading to the endangerment of primate species in several different regions of the world and it is only getting worse at the rate of deforestation is continuously increasing year after year.

 

Primates are our closest living relative whom we share about 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees, making them our closest living relatives. They have along historical connection with humans and contribute to biological, cultural richness and the natural heritage of the countries in which they occur. More importantly, primates are prey, predator, and mutualist species in food webs which play a key roles in ecosystem dynamics. So, acknowledging their importance in the ecosystem and culturally, determined our interest on conserving them.

However, deforestation, hunting, illegal trade, and wood extraction are leading to a worldwide impoverishment of primate fauna. Drivers of primate loss are dynamic and interact with each other at local, reginal, and global scales. But, primates are most affected by deforestation because they are in danger of losing their habitat. Increased human activity forested areas in recent years has caused forests to be divided up into fragments causing deforestation. Also, this is facilitated by poor governance of many countries, too.

Fortunately, it is not too late to save primates. There are steps to follow to improve  the situation. First, the campaign of reforestation should be mandatory to all government and apply in all area. Second , rebuilding and enhancing landscape connectivity to areas affected. Third, improving governance which will help to apply this changes.