Plant Invaders Week!

More on invasive species:

NT - Plant Invaders Week from National Trust on Vimeo.

Himalayan balsam again....

Looking for some bits and pieces on the Peak District website for Year 10, and I came across this.... So if you're bored of revision over half-term, go and help get rid of one of those invasive species you've been learning about!!

And another one...

Ecosystems/biodiversity article, that is. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/may/23/top-10-new-species-2010

Yr13 - Biodiversity

Two very interesting and useful reports from the Guardian about the importance of biodiversity:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/biodiversity-un-report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/un-biodiversity-economic-report

and an editorial here.

Make sure you investigate the links within the articles as well as the articles themselves.

Yr13 - a couple of Ecosystems bits and pieces...

News article from the BBC about urban trees helping migrating birds (link to the wildlife corridor concept) here.

And after my comment on Twitter about hoping that you lot were watching the One Show last night, I am now being followed by an environmental consultancy who seem to like eating Japanese Knotweed. Make of that what you will. Their website is here.

Savanna Grasslands

Tomorrow we will be having a look at the savanna grasslands of Tanzania, and considering the Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

The Serengeti National Park website has lots of information about the conservation and management of the area and the conflict between the different interest groups involved.

Amazon Conservation/Sustainable Development

Another useful link here, focusing on the Mamiraua reserve - will add a bit more specific detail to the info you have already from the textbook.

An oakless Britain?

Interesting article from the BBC about our disappearing oak trees...

Does it matter?

Yr13 - Rainforest Action Network

Thanks to Ellie for this link http://ran.org/

Yr13 - Amazon tribes using technology to protect rainorest

Just come across this article about Amazon tribes using technology to protect the rainforest through "cultural mapping"...

(I found this via The Prince's Rainforests Project page on Facebook - worth a look as there seems to be lots of other potentially useful stuff on there too http://www.facebook.com/#!/rainforestSOS.)

Year 13 - Deforestation

The main website that I want you to have a look at before Tuesday is the RGS's 21st Century Challenges. There is lots on the site that is of interest, but your particular focus at the moment should be on the Razing the Rainforests section. There are three talks/video clips that I'd like you to watch, and links to lots of news articles. From the information there, the booklets I gave you this morning, the textbooks and any other sites you come across (there are hundreds... one I've found to be fairly good is Mongabay...) I'd like you to come to Tuesday's lesson prepared to talk about causes and impacts of deforestation, and with your views about the sustainability of tropical rainforest development.

I'm not posting the video I showed you here (for hopefully obvious reasons!) but it, and lots of other useful and interesting videos, is on www.green.tv.

The Tundra Biome and the Southern Ocean...

After an introduction from the Mighty Boosh and the wonderful BrainPOP video, we talked about the tundra biome - you have the powerpoint via email, but the key points were:

- types of tundra and global distribution

- low-energy biome and low NPP

- limited biodiversity (just for you Ben...)

- adaptations of plants and animals

- food web

- soil characteristics

For no particular reason other than that you seemed quite impressed with them this morning, a nice picture of a lemming (courtesy of Flickr user kgleditsch under CC):

The exam question that I gave you needs to be finished for Wednesday next week please.

The ecosystem of the Southern Ocean was the final thing that we looked at - rich ecoystem due to the cold water holding plenty of oxygen and carbon dioxide, turbulent waters ensuring a ready supply of nutrients, and long daylight hours for part of the year allowing for plenty of photosynthesis.

And for those of you who preferred chinstrap penguins to lemmings, a rather nice picture from Flickr user robnunn, again under CC: