NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

PART ONE: GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

To correctly identify natural environments you need their geographical characteristics such as: SOILS CLIMATE TOPOGRAPHY NATURAL VEGETATION

GO OUTSIDE!! Take the kids outside! I go out to the trees just outside my room. I get the kids to “touch and feel” and tell me how the soil feels in their hands, tell me what the weather is general like here this time of the year, tell me what the shape of the ground is like and what trees we are looking at.

SOILS TYPE ORIGIN (HOW WERE THEY MADE) TEXTURE PH- ACIDIC, ALKALINE OR NEUTRAL WATER CONTENT MINERAL CONTENT Literally the foundations of the environment because it dictates what will grow= FERTILITY

CLIMATE Average temperature Average rainfall Patterns over time and seasons. A summary or judgement about whether a place is dry, cold, wet or hot in general or at certain times of the year.

TOPOGRAPHY The shape of the land. The up and down bits! Is it flat or hilly or steep “YMCA”- arm movements to match the words steep, flat, undulating-DO IT DURING THE EXAM TO REMEMBER!!

NATURAL VEGETATION BASE for the biosphere and what animal life can be supported by it. What is used for food and what for habitat. THEN you CAN DISCUSS INTRODUCED SPECIES later.

Its not enough to just know the ingredients! You also need to know: The components The inputs The Processes The Outputs

Processes put simply erosionLike a Bulldozer on construction site Eg: rain, wind, human machines, animals digging or destroying. TransportationLike a dump-truck taking dirt from the construction site Eg: wind or flowing water carry dirt. depositionThe dump-truck empties its loads in layers at a new site Eg: wind or water flow lessens enough to drop its load somewhere new.

components Base or what you start with such as Soil Topography Natural vegetation and animals

inputs What is added or comes in from outside eg: rain, sun, water flow from up-stream and wind. Introduced species Interaction between different natural environments-do they blend or have buffer-zones?

processes What happens to it Eg: Photosynthesis and respiration Erosion, by the wind, rain or animals Transportation, carried by wind, rain or animals Deposition, being laid down in another location

outputs What's the result? Landforms slowly change over time. Drastic change due to natural disasters such as death, starvation and disease. Natural waste products of photosynthesis and respiration. Survival and reproduction in the biosphere.

BACK OUTSIDE!! Go outside again to the small plantation of trees at the back of our oval. Discuss the recycling of carbon in this place and students handle leaf litter. Discuss the water cycle and what is happening now its drought Discuss habitats or food we see and guess what animals big and small live here.

Change in natural environments Time period for events eg: seasonal, immediate, annual or evolution. Scale of change: widespread or localised Connections, links and relations between all four spheres and the results Recycling of nutrients through the environment Human impact direct or indirect

Spatial change over time. Movement. Adjustments local, minor or major and widespread. Visuals: Visible and data representation on locations, patterns or boundaries that can be mapped. Indicates scale and location of the components of a natural environment. Indicates growth or decline.