Plagioclimax and Rewilding Flashcards
1
Q
Methods of maintaining plagioclimax habitats
A
- grazing/mowing
- coppicing/pollarding
- burning
2
Q
Plagioclimax
A
- deflecting succession in an environment through human management
3
Q
How does grazing maintain a grassland plagioclimax?
A
- prevents the establishment of taller plants,
- animal dung produces areas with high nutrient levels
- sheep eat shorter grasses
4
Q
The role of mowing
A
- removes thorny, bad tasting plants that grazing herbivores avoided
5
Q
The role of burning (moorland)
A
- creates open unshaded areas,
- needed for growth of young heather plants
- heat of fire stimulates heather seeds
6
Q
The role of coppicing (woodland)
A
cutting trees in a rotational cycle
- produces areas of woodland of different ages
- supports different individual communities of wildlife
7
Q
The role of pollarding
A
- branches cut above the height that deers could eat them
8
Q
What is rewilding?
A
- reinstating natural processes and species - particularly keystone species to restore the natural habitat
9
Q
Re-wilding of the Gray Wolf in the Yellowstone National park, USA
A
- deer populations have declined, so fewer young trees are killed
- having more trees allows the beaver population to increase
- beavers creating dams increases wetland habitat areas
- wetland species become more common
