3.1.3 Life processes in the biosphere and conservation planning

Question 1

Ecological terminology

Answer 1

Species
Taxon - category or group of species
Eco niche
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biome

Question 2

Ecological succession in conserving plagioclimax habitats

Answer 2

• migration - low nutrients, few species survive. Pioneer species
• primary colonisation - stuff moving in, decomposition.
• secondary colonisation - establishment and more decomposition.
• tertiary colonisers - competitors, interspecies competition.
• stabilisation - generalist species, wide range of tolerance.
• climax communities - trees, final stage.

Seres - complete succession of plant communities resulting in climax community.
Pioneer species - species first colonise.
Deflected succession - stable community but humans prevent further succession.
Secondary succession - climax community is disturbed.
Plagioclimax communities - area of habitat in which humans have influenced from developing further.

Question 3

Maintains plagioclimax

Answer 3

• grazing
• mowing
• burning
• coppicing • pollarding

Question 4

Management of desirable species

Answer 4

• release programmes
• habitat management.

Question 5

R- And K- species

Answer 5

R- selected species - species that respond rapidly to low survival rates, reach sexual maturity quickly and disperse widely.

K - selected species - recover slowly from declining population, sexual maturity at older age, produce few young but live for a long time. Slow reproduction rate makes it hard to replace losses.