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Living things in an environment (plants and animals)
BIOTIC
A line of linkages between producers and consumers. It shows how energy is passed on from one
organism to another.
FOOD CHAIN
This is made up of plants, animals and their surrounding physical
environment. Important interrelationships link them
together.
ECOSYSTEM
Non living things in an environment (rain, soil and sunlight)
ABIOTIC
Average weather conditions over at least a 30 year period. It is the
temperature and precipitation that an area usually has (what we expect
to see).
CLIMATE
Means the environment can support a large variety of plant and animal life in the habitat
e.g. Epping Forest.
HIGH BIODIVERSITY
The environment can only support a small variety of plants and animals (often because the environmental conditions are not easy to live in) e.g. Western Desert region, USA
LOW BIODIVERSITY
A diagram that shows all the linkages between producers and
consumers in an ecosystem.
FOOD WEB
Organisms at the bottom of the food chain so get their energy from
the sun.
PRODUCERS
Organisms that break down remains of dead plants and animals and
release the chemicals back into the soil.
DECOMPOSERS
Organisms that get their energy from eating dead plants and
animals.
SCAVENGERS
Organisms that get their energy from eating other organisms.
CONSUMERS
How nutrients move around an ecosystem (shown as a diagram with stores and
transfers)
NUTRIENT CYCLING
Case study of a tropical rainforest
MALAYSIA
Vegetation adaptations to a tropical rainforest climate
BUTTRESS ROOTS,LIANAS,
DRIP TIPS
Layering of tropical rainforests
STRATIFICATION
A rainforest soil (orange)
LATOSOL
A sustainable way that indigenous people use the trees in a tropical
rainforest
SHIFTING CULTIVATION(SLASH AND BURN)
Growing enough food to feed yourself and your family (none left
over to sell)
SUBSISTENCE FARMING
One economic reason why an area of Malaysia was deforested for an
energy development
BAKUN DAM HEP SCHEME
A sustainable way of using the trees in a tropical rainforest (fully grown trees selected, cut down without
damaging other trees, removed by a water buffalo, a replacement tree is
planted).
SELECTIVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
LICs have some of their debts removed by HICs in return for not
deforesting their tropical rainforests.
DEBT FOR NATURE AGREEMENTS
Case study of a hot desert
WESTERN DESERTS REGION, USA
Productive land on the fringes (edges) of deserts are turned into
deserts.
DESERTIFICATION
Two causes of desertification (too much use of the soils by farmers for
crops and animals)
OVERGRAZING and OVERCULTIVATION
Solution to desertification – a wall of trees and other vegetation
GREAT GREEN WALL OF AFRICA
Small scale ecosystem case study
EPPING FOREST
Species reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park (and had
a large impact on the ecosystem)
GREYWOLF
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