The key is to make it an easily accessible and visually appealing fact sheet. In this regard, a font size of 12 and 1.5 line spacing would be typical for a document such as this. But there are no hard rules on font size and line spacing. For example, to save space you could use a smaller font size and 1.0 line spacing for your reference list and a font size of 12 and 1.5 line spacing for the rest of the document etc. But please note that using a very small font so that information can be crammed into the document will not provide a "succinct" assignment. Such an approach will lose marks in overall presentation.
Guidelines for Assignment #2 – Salmo salar Fact Sheet 1. Assignment #2 should be approximately 3 pages long. This means that your goal is to keep the document to a 3 page max, but if you go slightly over, you will not be penalized. 2. Your document can be designed any way you want. The key is to make it an easily accessible and visually appealing fact sheet. In this regard, a font size of 12 and 1.5 line spacing would be typical for a document such as this. But there are no hard rules on font size and line spacing. For example, to save space you could use a smaller font size and 1.0 line spacing for your reference list and a font size of 12 and 1.5 line spacing for the rest of the document etc. But please note that using a very small font so that information can be crammed into the document will not provide a "succinct" assignment. Such an approach will lose marks in overall presentation. 3. I have provided one resource that contains almost all the information you need for the content of Assignment #2 (i.e. No. 64, Consensus Document on the Biology of the Atlantic Salmon from the Environment Directorate, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) PART I - BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF WILD ATLANTIC SALMON). However, you will be required to source your own information for the “Relevance to humans” section of the assignment. For this, you must use the primary literature, reputable book/s or published reports by national/international scientific working groups or government groups. Websites that are not "peer reviewed", "share" information without providing sources, or simply do not provide source information are typically not acceptable. If you are unsure about the acceptability of other resources, please check with the course director. 4. For the bibliography and in text citation of resources, all students are required to use the same style. A specific set of guidelines in a document titled "Bibliography Guideline Document" is provided on eClass to allow all students to achieve this. 5. The following provides a breakdown of how marks will be distributed and further details on assignment content: (i) Taxonomy (worth 10%) - Up to date (valid based on the latest scientific consensus) mandatory ranks are required along with a common name and the authority (with year). (ii) General morphology (worth 20%) - Please use Figure 2 in the OECD document provided [i.e. Image of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)] to generate a hand-drawn figure*. The figure must be a labelled drawing of the animal. In a field setting, an animal biologist may only have paper and pencil at hand to make sketches and notes on the morphology of an animal. So, computer/tablet-assisted drawings are not permitted. Identify and label the following structures in your hand-drawn figure: (1) Eye (2) Mouth (3) Operculum (4) Pectoral fin (5) Dorsal fin (6) Adipose fin (7) Scales (8) Lateral line (9) Pelvic fin (10) Anal fin (11) Caudal fin (12) Spots - For general morphology, a written description of the morphology of the adult animal is required which must consider general body form and appearance as well as labelled structures as appropriate. A written description of morphology should include what distinguishes parr and smolts (iii) Ecological information (worth 10%) - Range and Distribution - Habitat (of adult fish and parr; no need to include spawning habitat) - Abundance (iv) Life-history information (worth 30%) - This section should include a hand drawn figure* of the life cycle of Salmo salar. The life cycle has at least six (6) stages that, broadly speaking, occur across two environments - Life-history in freshwater - Should include a description of spawning (incorporating behaviour of spawning migration and spawning) as well as all stages found in this environment - Life-history in the ocean/seawater - Post-smolt stage - Adult - Food (should include food sources of all life-cycle stages) - Predators (of parr, smolt, post-smolt and adult) (v) Relevance to humans (worth 10%) - For this section you will be required to source your own information (two sources at least). You must use the primary literature, reputable book/s or published reports by national/international scientific working groups or government groups. Websites that are not "peer reviewed", "share" information without providing sources, or simply do not provide source information are typically not acceptable. If you are unsure about the acceptability of other resources, please check with the course director. (vi) Bibliography (worth 10%) - The bibliography should be in the style of the peer reviewed journal. How to do this is detailed in the document titled “Detailed guidelines for bibliography” (vii) Overall presentation etc. (worth 10%) - this mark is at the discretion of the TA/marker. It is based (broadly speaking) on overall presentation. Examples include (but are not limited to): Is the fact sheet well laid out? Does the Fact Sheet look polished? Are figures used well and of good quality? Did the student provide figure legends and were they informative? Grammar, spelling, progressive development of content etc. NOTE: *: In biology, all figures should be stand alone. That is, a figure and figure legend together should fully explain what a reader is looking at. Guidelines for Assignment Bibliography 1. All published citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list (bibliography), which includes all key elements of each reference, including the names of journals in full (not abbreviated). 2. Students are responsible for checking the accuracy of their references. 3. Bibliography entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work*. 4. Examples of reference content requirements are shown below. Journal Article: Flowers, K. I., Henderson, A. C., Lupton, J. L., & Chapman, D. D. (2017). Site affinity of whitespotted eagle rays Aetobatus narinari assessed using photographic identification. Journal of Fish Biology, 91, 1337– 1349 Gill, A. B. (2003). The dynamics of prey choice in fish: The importance for prey size and satiation. Journal of Fish Biology, 63, 105– 116 Book: Halver, J. E., & Hardy, R. W. (2002). Fish nutrition. San Diego, CA: Academic Press Chapter in a Book: Mench, J. A., & Mason, G. J. (1997). Behaviour. In M. C. Appleby & B. O. Hughes (Eds.), Animal Welfare (pp. 127– 142). New York, NY: CAB International Electronic References: These include references not subject to peer review and formal publication and can be set out as shown given below. ICES (2016). Report of the Baltic salmon and trout assessment working group (WGBAST). ICES CM 2016/ACOM:09. Available at: http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Expert%20Group%20Report/acom/2016/WGBAST/w gbast_2016.pdf Text citation of references use the style “author, date” and multiple references are list in alphabetical order. For example: ‘…as demonstrated by McKenzie (2001) and by McKenzie and Farrell (2010)’ ‘…as suggested previously (Sloman, 2010), but not by others (McKenzie and Farrell, 2010)’ ‘…consistent with earlier studies (Blaber, 1975, 1988; Lujan, 2011a,b; Prodöhl, 1988)’ Three or more authors are cited with the name of the first author followed by et al. (i.e. et al. in italics): e.g., (Sloman et al., 2002) or Sloman et al. (2002). *: For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent. http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Expert%20Group%20Report/acom/2016/WGBAST/wgbast_2016.pdf http://ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Expert%20Group%20Report/acom/2016/WGBAST/wgbast_2016.pdf OECD No 64 Part I Biology and Ecology of Wild and Atlantic Salmon Unclassified ENV/JM/MONO(2017)64 Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 17-May-2017 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ English - Or. English ENVIRONMENT DIRECTORATE JOINT MEETING OF THE CHEMICALS COMMITTEE AND THE WORKING PARTY ON CHEMICALS, PESTICIDES AND BIOTECHNOLOGY CONSENSUS DOCUMENT ON THE BIOLOGY OF ATLANTIC SALMON (Salmo salar) Series on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology No. 64 JT03414336 Complete document available on OLIS in its original format This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. ENV/JM/MONO(2017)64 2 OECD Environment, Health and Safety Publications Series on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology No. 64 Consensus Document on the Biology of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Environment Directorate Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Paris 2017 ENV/JM/MONO(2017)64 3 Also published in the Series on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology: No. 1, Commercialisation of Agricultural Products Derived through Modern Biotechnology: Survey Results (1995) No. 2, Analysis of Information Elements Used in the Assessment of Certain Products of Modern Biotechnology (1995) No. 3, Report of the OECD Workshop on the Commercialisation of Agricultural Products Derived through Modern Biotechnology (1995) No. 4,