Ecosystems challenge and change

Biotic: vegetation, mammals, insects, birds and microorganism
Abiotic: climate, soil characteristics, rock, relief of land, drainage characteristics
Inputs: sun, animals and water
Outputs: nutrients are transferred out, water and animals move,
Flows: one store to another
Stores: vegetation, plant litter and soils

The cycling of nutrients within the main street tore some of the biome represented usually by a Gersmehl diagram

Producers: produce their own food through photosynthesis using energy from sunlight
Primary consumers: insects, fish, birds and mammals that eat producers
Secondary consumers or carnivores: meat eaters
Tertiary consumers: top of the trophic pyramid, they are top predators
Detritivores: an animal that feeds on dead waste and material

The change in a plant community over time is succession.
Primary succession: had no previous vegetation including lava flows, bare rocks and sand dunes.
Xeroseres are formed on dry land, this can be divided into lithosphere and psammoseres on sand dunes.hydroseres are formed in water, haloseres in salt water and hydroseres in fresh water.
Secondary succession: follows the destruction of modification of an existing plant community. Can occur through farmi, fires or deforestation

Stages / seres
Invasion, colonisation, competition, domination and decline

A biome is a global scale ecosystem, and is naturally occurring.
Plant successions can be stopped from reaching climatic climax by human interference. The resulting vegetation is known as plagioclase.
Deforestation, animal grazing and fire clearance.
A secondary succession develops after.

Industrial sites, derelict land, residential gardens and allotments, parks and green areas, transport routes, waste disposal areas, urban forests, water bodies

Horizontal bare tarmac, vertical stone walls, vertical brick walls, tops of walls, rubble strewed ground

Slope- can accumulate soil
Moisture availability- rainwater accumulates
Aspect- south facing are warmer and drier
Porosity- surfaces that can hold water are colonised easier
Surface roughness- allowing plants to get a hold
Pollution levels- depend on previous site use
Succession: pioneers, mosses and lichens, then Oxford ragwort in cracks in the surface,then tall herbs, then grassland then scrub woodland
Soil fauna increase as it goes on

RoutewAys are distinctive habitats because exotic species of plants and insects may be brought by traffic. They represent wildlife corridors. Railway lines enable animals to move around the city. Roads act in a similar way, providing homes on verges and embankments for kestrels and scavenging birds. Canals act like long ponds providing a habitat for a variety of plants.

Altruistic motives: giving a dull urban landscape more colour
Improving the visual outlook: hiding eyesores to encourage business or residents to move
For study purpose
Local businesses may want a pleasant site to attract customers
Arboretum from council
Attract new species from birdwatchers
Noise and pollution inhibitors
Provide shade in hot urban environments
Reduce soil erosion on embankments

This is the countryside immediately surrounding towns and cities. It is an attraction for airports business and theme parks.
Many areas are greenbelts

Encourages wildlife back into cities, making cheap use of an otherwise derelict area that would be expensive to set up as a park, reducing maintenance costs in an area, maintaining a diversity species base and reintroducing locally extinct species.

A fragile environment or ecosystem is one lacks resilience to a change in conditions.