Year 11 - Science
Climate change and biodiversity: forests and oceans
Maintaining biodiversity and human impacts
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores trophic levels, biomass pyramids, and the efficiency of biomass transfers in ecosystems. It examines human impacts on biodiversity, factors affecting food security, and biotechnological solutions. Emphasis is on evaluating environmental changes and ethical considerations.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe the importance of forests and oceans in combating climate change, and the impact of human activities on forests and oceans.
Key Notes
- Forests act as a global carbon sink, absorbing one-quarter of the annual global CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere.
- Deforestation contributes to climate change and is a major cause of habitat and biodiversity loss.
- Mitigation strategies include forest protection, reducing deforestation for farming, and replanting trees.
- Oceans act as a global carbon sink, absorbing one-quarter of annual global CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere.
- High CO₂ levels harm marine biodiversity through ocean acidification and reduced shell formation, alongside overfishing.
Vocabulary To Learn
- climate change: Climate change is a long-term shift in weather patterns.
- carbon sink: A process or system that takes more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
- deforestation: Deforestation is the removal of trees, often for timber or fuel, or to repurpose land for housing or farming.
- acidification: Ocean acidification is the reduction of the ocean pH over an extended period of time, mainly caused by the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Incorrectly thinking that we can use and damage forests and oceans without negative consequences for the planet and our own survival.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Forests act as a global carbon sink, absorbing one-quarter of the annual global CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere. Deforestation contributes to climate change and is a major cause of habitat and biodiversity loss.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'climate change'
Climate change is a long-term shift in weather patterns. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Incorrectly thinking that we can use and damage forests and oceans without negative consequences for the planet and our own survival. Correction: This lesson explores the crucial role of forests and oceans as global carbon sinks that offset human carbon emissions, and the impacts of deforestation, global warming and ocean acidification.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Benefits and challenges of maintaining biodiversity Study Guide
- Climate change and biodiversity: changes in the distribution of organisms Study Guide
- Examples of human interactions with ecosystems, including fish farming Study Guide
- Examples of human interactions with ecosystems, including use of peat Study Guide
- Factors affecting human food security, and possible solutions Study Guide
- Negative human interactions with ecosystems and impacts on biodiversity Study Guide
- Transfers of biomass between trophic levels Study Guide
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