Welcome to Year Thirteen

As we have changed to WJEC, here are some new word documents from classses etc that you can download! Below this, is a list of weblinks to the natural world and its use and misuse with special emphasis on the tropical rainforest biome.

The Biosphere - Word document that examines all facets of the Biosphere! An excellent introduction!

Fifty-Five Facts about Rainforests! - Top that if you can! This is a good place to start to learn about rainforests

Following on, this guide to the tropical rainforest and man's impact upon it will be useful. (This is a large word file that contains a lot of xcellent images, but will take a short while to download!)

Mineral Extraction in the Rainforest - PowerPoint Examining the impacts of mineral extration, looking at the Amazon in particular.

Tourism and Rainforests PowerPoint - Some background information how toursim can impact on tropical rainforests

Why is oil palm replacing tropical rainforest? A word file with information on how this highly lucrative scheme to produce biofuels to offset climate change are also destroying rainforests.

Rainforest Revision - Revision Sheet on Rainforests

Biomes: The natural environment

Small ecosystems - structure links and succession
"Terrestial, atmospheric and biotic processes interconnect to create a distinctive vegetation type. Human demands can affect a biome which requires sensitive management if irreversible damage is to be avoided." WJEC specification

Biogeographical theory:
A basic wordlist of terms used in ecology. http://www.netcore.ca/~gibsonjs/dict3g2.htm

Biomes or world vegetation regions are covered in some detail by Susan L. Woodward of Radford University as part of the North American Virtual Geography Department project http://www.colorado.edu/geography/virtdept/contents.html . This page introduces the biome concept and has links to information on each biome (eg boreal forest, tropical savanna).
http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/intro.html

Community and ecosystem dynamics Chapter from online biology textbook. Includes biome map and summary of main biomes. Useful glossary.
http://gened.emc.maricopa.edu/bio/bio181/BIOBK/BioBookcommecosys.html

Biodiversity:

UK Biodiversity Find out about biodiversity in the UK, what it means, why it is important and what is happening to conserve species and habitats in the UK and in your area or region. Access the Action Plans - a set of costed strategies and goals that review the UK's biotic resources and establish a basic framework upon which to safeguard our species and habitats. http://www.ukbap.org.uk/

Biodiversity Pages from Environment Australia. http://www.ea.gov.au/biodiversity/

Measuring biodiversity value from the Natural History Museum in London. Measures of biodiversity are needed to determine the 'where' of conservation action rather than the 'how', particularly in deciding which combinations of available areas could represent and help sustain the most biodiversity value for the future.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/projects/worldmap/diversity/index.html

Case studies:

Amazonian rainforest
Rainforest web An excellent starting point. Has pages of links for South America and Brazil. http://www.rainforestweb.org/

The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) Monitors the rainforest by satellite. http://www.inpe.br/english/index.htm

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/ Recent Impacts on the rainforest, from farming, soya bean plantations to mineral extatction and palm oils. A weirdly named, but very informative site!

Rainforest conservation and news http://forests.org/

Amazon watch Good for news stories. http://www.amazonwatch.org/