Ecosystems Case Studies Flashcards
What is the deciduous woodland case study? How is it managed?
Haley Wood, Cambridgeshire
Owned and managed by the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust, it occupies 150 hectares and it’s been used and managed over 700 years
What types of plants in deciduous woodland (Haley Wood)?
- Grasses, brambles, ferns and wildflowers such as bluebells
- Oak trees, ash trees, elm trees, maple trees and willow trees
What types of animals in deciduous woodland (Haley Wood)?
- Birds: Fieldfare, nuthatch, treecreeper, spotted flycatcher
- Mammals: Fallow deer, muntjac deer
What type of soil is in deciduous woodland and what are the features?
- Brown earth soils
- Rich in humus due to thick leaf litter that accumulates in the Autumn
What is the name of the wildlife corridor case study?
Kingsweston and Trym Valley
What does Kingsweston and Trym Valley Wildlife Corridor link?
- Links Shirehampton and Henbury
What are the principal roads in the Kingsweston and Trym Valley Wildlife Corridor?
Napier Miles Road, Shirehampton Road, Kingsweston Road - estate roads with parkland setting and stone boundary walls
What are the key issues for the Kingsweston and Trym Valley Wildlife Corridor?
- Traffic and movement: heavily trafficked area , the portway had created a barrier between the original landscaped park to Kingsweston House
- Land use: pockets of land remain outside of heir use - inappropriate and intrusive, loss of rural character
- Town scape: estate landscape is sensitive to change, lack of landscape maintenance has led to a reduction in mature trees and loss of landscape
What are the enhancement objectives for Kingsweston and Trym Valley Wildlife Corridor?
- Infrastructure designed to integrate into landscape
- Land management plan - maintenance and upkeep of traditional footpaths
- Preservation of the landscape is seen as the principal objective within this Conservation Area
- Follies, drives, watercourses and lodges - essential that these are retained, improved and given adequate maintenance
What is the local conservation case study?
Trooper’s Hill in Bristol
General info for Trooper’s Hill (what? where? what type of habitat?)
- Nature Reserve from 1995
- In St George, East Bristol
- Acidic grassland and heathland habitat covers central area of the site
What type of plants can be found in Trooper’s Hill Nature Reserve?
- Grassland is unique due to acid soil tolerant
- Ling and bell heather
- Grassland fungi (waxcaps)
- Woodland - hawthorn, silver birch, oak, apple, broom and gorse
- Lots of bramble
What type of animals are found in Trooper’s Hill Nature Reserve?
- Butterflies: common blues, holly blues, marbled white
- The mining bee, endangered species
- 280 species of invertebrates - 80 different moths and 20 types of butterfly
- Birds: buzzard, tawny owl, long tailed tit
- Mammals: foxes, shrews, roe deer and bats
What strategies have been used to conserve Trooper’s Hill?
- Managed by ‘Friends of Trooper’s Hill’ volunteer group - work parties to help cut back scrub
- Acidic grassland and heathland are priority habitats in UK agreed by Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP)
- Scrub prevention - clearing areas that contained core habitat
- Stepping Forward Project - improving access to Troopers Hill and encourages visits
- Events
- Community payback
What are the impacts of the conservation strategies in Trooper’s Hill?
- Cutting back scrub protects acid grass and heathland
- Events increase appreciation for the area
- Green Flag Award
- Educational walks for schools and groups - enhances protection
- Awarded 5 stars in RHS Pride and Parks Award Scheme
- Invasion of Japanese Knotweed meant that trees and scrub were cleared to protect grassland - replaced by tall herb vegetation providing a nectar source
What is the tropical rainforest case study and where is it located?
The Amazon Rainforest, South America
What are the climatic conditions of the Amazon?
- Temperatures between 25-30 degrees
- Significant cloud cover
- 80% humidity
- High average rainfall (12m a year)
- Between 50-60% of precipitation is recycled by evapotranspiration
- System relies on rain
What are the features of the plants in the Amazon? Some examples?
- Large leaf area to maximise sunlight absorption
- Some plants grow on tree branches to be closer to sunlight
- Some plants use energy for thin rapid growth - cheese plant
- One single tree can be home to 200 specis of insect and spider
- Some plants grow fruit with seeds that can’t be digested so they can be put back into soil by dung beetles
Why do trees and fungus in the Amazon have a vital relationship?
- Fungus attaches itself to tree roots- they absorb nutrients quicker than tree roots and faster than the rain can get to them
- The fungus is supplied with sugars and starch from the tree
Some examples of wildlife in the Amazon?
- Marmosets (feed off tree gum)
- Ants (attack plants that aren’t their host plants)
- Hummingbirds can pollinate flowers
- Giant otters (live in oxbow lakes)
- River turtles (nest in sediment deposited into banks)
What are the features of the nutrient system in the Amazon?
- 99% of nutrients are found in living tissues
- everything is recycled - dung, trees, dead bodies etc and keeps nutrients moving
- 1% of nutrients are found in soil
- Top 50cm of the soil has nutritional value
What are the problems caused by deforestation in the Amazon?
- Land becomes infertile
- Cattle ranching accounts for 60% of deforestation in the Amazon
- Causes nutrients to be washed away by rain and the soil to be dried by the sun
What are the impacts of human activity on the climate in the Amazon?
- Deforestation has contributed to 10% of CO2 to the atmosphere
- Burning of forest adds to greenhouse gases
- Reduction in the amount of oxygen produced
What are the impacts of human activity on the environment in the Amazon?
- Loss of plant, animal and insect species
- Only 1% of plant varieties have been tested by scientists in medical exploration
- Increase in soil erosion and soil infertility
- Increase in the levels of mercury in the ater through mining
What are the impacts of human activity on the people in the Amazon?
- Traditional livelihood of tribes are being threatened by loss of land, conflict and new disease
What countries are included in the Sahel ecosystem?
Senegal, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan
What is the Sahel ecosystem and why is it fragile?
- The eco-climatic and biogeographic zone of transition in Africa between the Sahara to the north and Sudanian Savanna to the south
- Fragile because: 175th poorest country, evapotranspiration is 4-5 times greater than rainfall, continual movement of livestock, drought and explosive population growth = overgrazing, deforestation and soil erosion
What type of flora and fauna can be found in the Sahel?
Flora: grassland, savanna, woodland and shrubland
Fauna: Grazing animals- gazelle and buffalo, large predators - african wild dog, cheetah and lion
What human activity is operating in the Sahel and the impacts?
- Selective hunting, gathering, bush fires, charcoal production- modification of Sahelian ecosystems and reductions in biodiversity and productivity
- Slash and burn has degraded envrionments
- Human induced stress on landscape through overgrazing, over-farming and quick population growth
What is being done to manage issues in the Sahel?
- Famine Early Warning Systems
- Sahel and West Africa Club - set up to help identify issues and offer strategic support to Sahel countries
- Local Schemes - to aid understanding and promote protection the the resource- soil and water conservation techniques, improved farming technologies
- Soil and water conservation techniques: contour stone lines built across natural contour, terraces on slopes, hedges planted as windbreaks, making compost and using manure as fertility
What countries are included in the Amazon ecosystem?
Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela
What is the Amazon ecosystem and why is it fragile?
A tropical rainforest ecosystem with large deciduous trees and swamps
- Fragile as it is the only rainforest we have left in terms of size and diversity
- Impact of Amazon deforestation continues to undo the ecological process that have been refined over millions of years
What type of flora and fauna can be found in the Amazon?
Flora: Papya, ormosia, guava, string orchid, cecropia
Fauna: Spider monkey, sloth, giant river otter, poison arrow frog
What human activity is operating in the Amazon (large scale conservation case study)?
- Deforestation for human settlement
- Lumber, agriculture and mining industries
- Soil fertility only good enough to grow crops for a few years after it’s been cleared - leads to more being cleared
- Discovery of medicines
- Harvesting of renewable and sustainable resources
What is being done to manage the issues in the Amazon? (large scale conservation case study)
- Agro-forestry - growing trees and crops at the same time, preventing soil erosion
- Selective logging - trees only felled when they reach a particular height, guaranteeing a longer life span for the younger trees
- Education - ensuring people involved in exploitation and management understand the consequences
- Afforestation - planting trees
- Forest reserves - protected areas
- Monitoring - checking for illegal activity
