Discuss the Relative Importance of Physical and Human Factors in Accounting for Changes to Vegetation over Time Within Ecosystems in the British Isles (40 Marks)

Chemicals harm the growth of plants and animals, chemicals can lead animals to death. Many of the water animals

There are many factors that account for the changes to the vegetation over time within ecosystems in the British Isles, such as human activity, climate, soil, light availability and intensity and natural disasters. The characteristics of the vegetation that are influenced by these factors are height, distribution, variety of species, adaptations and density of the vegetation. Some of these factors have relatively little influence on the succession development, whereas others have a dramatic influence over a long period of time, such as human activity. These factors, over time, result in the progression of a succession until the climatic climax vegetation is reached. However, sometimes these factors can mean that a plagioclimax is reached,

The article discussed the changes in many habitats due to anthropogenic activity. Anthropogenic is an adjective that describes changes in nature due to the people. Next, this article discussed climate change and the impact that it is having on species like clams, and fish due to ocean temperatures rising. The article also addressed carbon dating of fossils to look for cause of extinctions. Human development and agriculture have had a tremendous impact on the population of many species that are terrestrial. Deforestation is a big problem that has caused a decline in the bird species. Commercial fishing in many areas has led to a decline in fish populations. Furthermore this article

This kind of diversity was typical of the New England landscape, and is at least as important as

The effects of these continental air masses are less prevalent than maritime influences; however they still have important influences on weather in the British Isles, and are also fundamental in explaining temporal and spatial differences in climate across the country.

The geology of Pembrokeshire is well known for the coastal display of diversity of rocks and scenery over 250 miles exposure than any equivalent area in Britain. It has ancient landscape which was formed many years ago (290 million) at the end of Carboniferous period. The geological process and action such as river weathering, glaciations and marine erosion on this variety of rock is as a result of diversity of coastal landscape.

With poor weather, it was clear that the species that thrived in the wooded areas survived more effectively as a result of the protection that offered by the woods. Although more mosses and grasses were present near the quarries, it was obvious that they were much more susceptible to wind, cold, and rain. With fall in full swing, the vegetation near the quarries changed much sooner than the woodland vegetation.

Temperate deciduous forests are among the major biomes on earth. They are also among the biomes that have been most heavily impacted by global change factors. Although there is the perception that the greatest concern should be held for tropical rain forests, temperate deciduous forests have a smaller fraction of original vegetation remaining than boreal or tropical forests, and also have been more severely impacted by land use change and air pollution. Temper- ate deciduous forests are most common in Europe, eastern North America, Japan and China, and in all these regions humans have used them heavily as a resource. Logging, grazing, conversion to agriculture, fire suppression and manipulation of wildlife populations, have caused massive alterations

The need of every changing vegetation is key to keeping everything at its best. Tansley said he would put animals out to pasture and also take the away to feed for the simple fact of the dung. Just like now with the simple thing of crop rotation. The plants need the change in

Scotland’s climate is characteristically very variable which is due largely to two sets of controlling factors. The first is the interaction between the meteorological influences of the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the large Eurasian landmass to the east. The second is its mid-latitude location where a progression of eastwards-moving depressions and their associated forms results in a very distinctive changes in the weather.

Another risk factor is loss of biodiversity and massive extinction of species. This is caused by the change in ecosystem due to climate change, pollution, and invasive species (Cooney). Also, many of the species need some time or some generations to evolve and adjust to the new ecosystem. Due to the rapid change, many of the species are finding it very difficult to adjust and survive in the new ecosystem. They are losing the food source, water source, and their habitat. As a result, many species are extincting and causing a huge loss of biodiversity

Thus far, in recent decades, temperature increase has been widespread across Scotland (gov.scot). Other features of climatic change

Having data for 1910-1947 and data for 2000-2015, we had two good time periods to study, analyse and compare. It is important to note that the long term data records that were collected help us out a lot and are vital to ensure that we can make useful comparisons between time periods. Initially we used 1891-1947 but we had to cut out years 1891-1909 to compare temperature. When working with the temperature data the only problem with the data was the regions used. The regions used in the Met Office data were different to the regions used in the data we obtained from the Nature’s Calendar. Although it was a problem we overcame this by assigning the original regions to the Met Office regions. This wasn’t a problem and it didn’t have an impact on the results, as all the regions behaved similarly to each other. For future research, it could be useful to see the impact that other variables might have on the flowering of Colt’s-foot. The limitation our research had was that we only looked at the temperature variable. We ruled out temperature, as a variable that caused Colt’s-foot to flower later but future research could look at variables such as air pressure, rainfall and snowfall. These variables could be analysed and it could be that one of these variables caused the flowering of Colt’s-foot to be

"Climate is the product of two factors: the long-term patterns in the circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, and topography, the very slowly changing shape of the land surface" (Lee et. al, 2013, p. 101). The topography of the earth has changed due to human actions which has resulted in an increase in erosion. "The process of natural selection: a population is selected by natural forces such as the ability to elude predators, survive drought, or reproduce" (Lee et. al, 2013, p.113). The use of the phrase "elude" suggest that animals settle in place where they are not hunted or displaced. We as a civilization have begin to take over their land or area. The outpouring of of biological diversity calls us to marvel at its fecundity. It also

natural processes including habitat loss. The importance of biodiversity is vital to all life on