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Definition
Retreats at a rate of one to two metres every year, caused by strong prevailing winds creating longshore drift.
Also, the cliffs are made from soft boulder clay which will erode quickly especially when saturated.
Mappleton has about 50 properties which are under threat of collapsing from the erosion.
In 1991 the decision was made to protect Mappleton. This project consisted of £2 million and consisted of rock armour and two rock groynes. (Hard Engineering).
Mappleton is no longer at threat of erosion, however south of the coastline has been restricted of sediment and so it is eroding at a faster rate. |
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Term
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Definition
Hydraulic action: Air may become trapped in joints and cracks on a cliff face. When a wave breaks, the trapped air is compressed which weakens the cliff and causes erosion.
Abrasion: Bits of rock and sand in waves grind down cliff surfaces like sandpaper.
Attrition: Waves smash rocks and pebbles on the shore into each other, and they break and become smoother.
Solution: Acids contained in sea water will dissolve some types of rock such as chalk or limestone. |
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Term
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Definition
An ecosystem is a group of organisms; a relationship between living resources, habitants and residence of an area such as: Plants, Trees, Animals, Fish, Birds, micro organisms, water, soil and people.
When an ecosystem is healthy, it is referred to as 'sustainable', however there is such thing as a 'fragile ecosystem'. This is when an ecosystem has been severely affected by forces of nature, resulting in the destabilisation of the balance of living and non living things in it, leaving it vulnerable to destruction. It can be made fragile by climate change or human activity on the environment such as the mass cutting down of trees. Since every organism has an interaction, if one of them is destroyed, it affects the rest of the ecosystem.
Non living components in an ecosystem are called 'abiotic' components; sun light, rainfall and rocks. Living components such as trees, plants, animals and humans are called 'biotic'.
Ecosystems can be very big or very small, a small scale ecosystem can be a pond and a hedge row, whereas a large scale ecosystem is forests and lakes.
There are key elements in an ecosystem: Producer: They get their energy from sunlight and convert this into chemical energy which can be eaten by consumers.
There are two types of consumers, herbivores and carnivores. A herbivore is also known as a primary consumer.
Nature recycles everything, scavengers and decomposers enables it to do so. When plants and animals die, scavengers and decomposers are responsible for putting the nutrients back into the ecosystem. |
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Term
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Definition
Ecosystems can be small scale, covering a small area (Such as a pond), or large scale (Such as a Tropical Forest). The world is divided up in to ten major ecosystems. These large scale ecosystems are called biomes.
The ten major biomes are: Rainforests, Deciduous Forests, Coniferous Forest, Desert, Desert Scrub, Grassland, Savannah, Tundra, Mountains and Mediterranean.
These large scale ecosystems are defined by abiotic factors. These are: Climate, relief, geology, soils and vegetation. |
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