#607: Sand Dunes

I've previously posted about Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts videos.

This one on Sand Dunes was filmed at Holkham beach.

Format and contents of the video:

• How wind speed affects sand movement and accumulation 
• The role of pioneer plants in trapping and stabilising sand 
• How marram grass structures and strengthens dunes through rhizome networks 
• The succession of dunes from bare sand to woodland 
• The effects of human disturbance and coastal management 
• How natural dynamics — storms, floods, and fencing — continue to shape dune systems today

Thanks to Jake Fiennes of the Holkham Estate for making this possible and explaining the history.

This is a place that we used to visit for many years when I was Head of Geography at a school in King's Lynn.

I am developing a resource on the Holkham Estate for possible use as a case study by teachers, including reference to their WONDER strategy.

#543: Local case study suggestions: Wendling Beck, Norfolk

Wendling Beck is in Norfolk - my home county. It has undergone some regeneration recently. This video explores this idea of regenerating riparian environments.

#527: Gersmehl Diagrams

Check out this TES Resource which includes an animated Gersmehl diagram option.

Gersmehl diagrams were developed by Phil Gersmehl

They are particularly important when explaining the relative stores and flows of nutrients within an ecosystem. The thickness of the arrows or connectors and the size of the circles relates to the transfer or storage. For a rainforest, the nutrients are stored in the biomass for example, and nutrients move from the litter into the soil by decomposition and the work of detritivores.

I would imagine that they may end up being in the draft specification - perhaps only for UK based ecosystems e.g. deciduous woodland, heathland etc. but you never know.

e.g. a Tropical Rainforest.

Image source:

https://thatbiothing.wixsite.com/ecologyconservation/single-post/2015/12/07/the-gersmehl-cycles-nutrient-cycles

#442: "Freakosystems"

A piece on the BBC Futures website talks about the impact of people on a Hawaiian island which has produced a very unusual ecosystem.

O'ahu's lowland forests are now almost entirely devoid of the plants and animals that grew here for millions of years before the arrival of humans. Settlers brought extinctions by cutting down trees to make farms and introducing voracious predators and disease-carrying animals. Today, these tropical forests are a tapestry of non-native species introduced from every corner of the planet: Brazilian peppertree, Indonesian cinnamon and roseleaf bramble from the Himalayas and Australia. Most of the animals, including all the birds that Tarwater mentioned earlier, are also alien.

Update

Another example....

These are ‘freaksosystems’, or Frankenstein ecosystems. For the most part, people who work in landscape design and management have the feeling that they know better than nature. They love nothing more than to create a ‘freakosystem’ of their own designing (I love this term 😂). https://t.co/fjPczCuVm0

— Ben Goldsmith (@BenGoldsmith) April 28, 2025

#409: Soil and its parents

Soil is one of the most important substances on the planet, and there will definitely be a focus on soils in some way in the final specification as the soil partly determines the climax vegetation, along with other factors.

A definition from Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Soil is the biologically active and porous medium that has developed in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust. It serves as the reservoir of water and nutrients and a medium for the filtration and breakdown of injurious wastes. It also helps in the cycling of carbon and other elements through the global ecosystem.

The study of soil is called pedology.

Soil is also an important carbon store.

A short film on soil from the Royal Society.

Any look at Natural History will need to concern itself with the soil beneath our feet, and the rocks (parent material) that lie below that. I would imagine that the specification will refer to biomes, ecosystems and various other options which will require an understanding of the abiotic and biotic components.

Soil is made from four ingredients: weathered rock, organic material, water and air.

Soil is a nutrient store and is featured on Gersmehl diagrams of ecosystems.

#405: Biome viewer

Thanks to Hannah Steel for the link to this useful visualisation tool.

Biomeviewer displays a range of information in a visual way.

It's really useful for identifying biomes in a general way, and rotating the globe to see where they are located and identifying their characteristics.

There are accompanying resources in a folder, student worksheet and apparently an iOS app too.

The worksheet takes students through the various features which are built into the app.

You can also explore anthromes: anthropogenic biomes. These are where the majority of humanity lives.

A classification proposed by E.C. Ellis, October 25, 2005 lists them. Minimum mapping scale greater than or equal to one square kilometer.

Source: https://ecotope.org/about/anthropogenic_landscapes/

There is a lot more information and some useful maps on this website too, which is the new home of the previous link. Lovely work and I now want to do something with this as well...

#333: Tropics Day

Today is apparently Tropics Day.

The Tropics host 80% of the world’s biodiversity - and face severe challenges - including climate change, deforestation, urbanisation and demographic shifts.

Saturday is #TropicsDay.https://t.co/8sR4YNfQ1O #ForNature pic.twitter.com/y8cuBiICIR

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) June 29, 2024

Today is International #TropicsDay 🍍🐒🌴🦜🌧️🐠

On this day, @UN celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the Tropics while highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities nations of the Tropics face.#WeAreTheTropics pic.twitter.com/aa9EvYZ08C

— ipbes (@IPBES) June 29, 2022

#281: Natural History Reading List #17: 'Irreplaceable'

'Irreplaceable' is a book by Julian Hoffman.

It is subtitled 'The Fight to Save our Wild Places' and focusses on a number of locations which are threatened with being lost.

 It has a useful section on ancient woodlands which outlines very clearly what that term means, and the distinction between that and the wildwood.

Each section is relevant to particular types of ecosystems, and the book explores the nature of the threats they face, and the efforts being made to protect them. By the time I read through it, there were lots of post it notes for potentially useful sections.

A very good book as an introduction to the idea of wilderness, and the relationship between humans and nature.

He touches on the plastic threat when he visits the beach in the chapter entitled 'A world within water'.

He describes the discovery of the plastic nurdles which make up a part of any handful of beach sand in most of the world.

"For all its unquestionable usefulness for the human race, a convenience that's turned out to be irressistible to us, plastic places an unearthly burden on the rest of the living world."

My copy was loaned from Norwich Library service.

#256: Fieldwork resources - every Friday

Chloë Searl is an independent field studies tutor on the Isle of Wight. She also works as a CPD consultant, examiner and award-winning resources writer. 

She is also the current Chair of the Fieldwork and Outdoor Learning Special Interest Group of the Geographical Association. 

You can follow their Twitter feed on the link below.
@GAFOLSIG

Each Friday she shares a resource linked to fieldwork, and several of these have the potential to be put to use to those teaching the GCSE Natural History. This week's resource is a useful sheet that can be used to assess the human impact on ecosystems and habitats in an area.

This is sheet #93, so it's probably worth checking back through the feed for previous resources, or check the website.

🌍🔍#FridayFieldwork

Every Friday I showcase a resource which might make planning and delivering geography fieldwork a little easier. This week...

Human Impact Survey (Ecosystems and Habitats)https://t.co/SybBwsW1SJ pic.twitter.com/hCoGoka5Wv

— The Island Geographer (@theislandgeogr) March 8, 2024

#195: The Wash

One area which would make a good focus for an investigation of natural history and landscape management would be the large estuary called The Wash. 

It is one of Norfolk's Natural Nature Reserves.

The reserve is a mix of open deep water, permanent shallow water, mudflats and saltmarsh, representing one of Britain’s most important winter feeding areas for waders and wildfowl.

The Wash NNR comprises Kirton Marsh, Terrington St Clement Marsh, Point Green and the North Wootton Marsh. It’s a valuable breeding zone for birds like the redshank and supports one of the largest common seal populations in England.

Main habitat: saltmarsh and mudflats
Area: 8,880 hectares

Source: Gov.UK

I lived on the shores of the Wash for twelve years, and could cycle to a beach where I could watch the sun set over the water, or the passing storms as above. I also had friends who lived up on the hill in Hunstanton before the present sprawl of housing estates cloaked the whole area and cut off the view. I remember evenings sat in their garden looking down towards the coast and Searles' beach huts and across to the twinkling lights of Skegness and other settlements on the other side of The Wash: a view now lost forever.

Somewhere in The Wash lies a great treasure waiting to be found.

According to this blog:

In October 1216 King John was travelling from Spalding, Lincolnshire, to Bishop’s Lynn, Norfolk, but was taken ill and decided to return. While he took the longer route around the Wash by way of Wisbech, he sent his baggage train, comprising horse-drawn wagons, along the causeway and ford across the mouth of the Wellstream, a route usable only at low tide, to arrive ahead of him.

The tide came in very high and the baggage train was too slow to beat the tide and was washed away. The baggage included the crown jewels. Their loss was a major disaster, which John didn’t have to deal with, as he died, probably of food poisoning, a few days later. He was recorded as staying the following night, 12–13 October 1216, at Swineshead Abbey, moving on to Newark-on-Trent, and dying of his illness on 19 October.

However, there are plans to change the area irrevocably, and impact on its natural history and wildlife. These include the Snettisham Spectacular - which happens when the tides are right.

Nothing but nothing is safe from those whose lives are defined by making money through destruction. The Wash is precious beyond words. We don’t need a marina, cruise ships and a barrage on one of the best wader habitats in Europe. It’s priceless. https://t.co/o96ADEv7xQ

— Mary Colwell (@curlewcalls) May 21, 2023

There have been several attempts to put a barrage over the Wash in the past to generate tidal energy. This always causes controversy and the plans were recently revived. This may be an issue worth following depending on how serious the plans get over the next five years or so. A public meeting was held in Hunstanton this week.

There is a thread here describing some of the contributions by those who spoke:

Thanks to everyone who came down to support Mike and defend the Wash! 💚 https://t.co/4VGfKtMfIo

— Norfolk Wildlife Trust (@NorfolkWT) November 6, 2023

It's over 70 years since they were discussed for the first (or more) time. This link is to a Hansard discussion in 1967.

There are several useful links:

Britannica Encylopaedia entry.

A website for those who want to Sail the Wash.

One of the places on the edge of the Wash is Wild Ken Hill. This was the location of BBC filming for some years and remains a location which will perhaps be part of the resources I put together on Norfolk as an extended case study, with reference to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the Wash, Cley next the Sea and other key locations for investigating Natural History.

Images: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license - the Wash from Snettisham beach

#148: Natural History Reading List #11: 'The Wood for the Trees'

Richard Fortey has written a few books which deserve to be on the reading list that we are putting together for sharing, and will also be in my growing GCSE Natural History library which I will assemble in my classroom in 2024.

Fortey is a palaentologist who has written a number of books and won a number of awards including the Linnean Medal. They are useful for supporting the teaching of several of the proposed themes, and he is able to bring together a range of themes and disciplines together really well.

I imagine there will also be an 'official' list of recommended and supplementary reading in the final specification. 

Being well read about the wide range of options for a course in natural history is going to be important.

From a review of the book, which gives you a flavour of its contents:

This biography of a beech-and-bluebell wood through diverse moods and changing seasons combines stunning natural history with the ancient history of the countryside to tell the full story of the British landscape.

Guided by his abiding love of nature and a lifetime of scientific expertise, Richard Fortey takes us on a journey through ecosystems and time. The Wood for the Trees is the story of humankind meeting nature, an homage to the mesmerising interactions between flora, fauna and fungi.

Discover the lives of animals and plants; the passage of seasons; visits by fellow enthusiasts; the play of light between branches; the influence of geology; and how woodland has shaped history, architecture, and industry. 

On every page Fortey shows how an intimate study of one small wood can reveal so much about the natural world, and demonstrates his relish for the incomparable pleasures of discovery.

The book was published in 2016, and I have a 2nd hand copy in my growing Natural History library. 

After Christmas, I am going to be creating a series of shelves in my classroom and an area of storage boxes where I file away relevant documents and resources ready for potential discussions with other colleagues.

Here's a review by Rob Cowen.

In 2011, after retiring from his role as senior palaeontologist Fortey purchased four acres of prime beech and bluebell wood. Located in the Chiltern Hills, a mile from his hometown of Henley-on-Thames, Grim’s Dyke Wood was the very patch of wood that 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill walked through and proclaimed woods “the great beauty of this country”.

I will be sharing some sections from this once I've had a chance to fillet it - there are already quite a few post it notes sticking out of the side of the book.

#133: Professor Peter Higgins: Biogeochemical cycles

It's well worth watching this video which features Professor Peter Higgins. 

He talks about the importance of biogeochemical cycles.

The Natural History GCSE will hopefully explore ideas related to the cycling of nutrients by biological, geological and chemical processes happening within the biotic and abiotic elements of a range of ecosystems.

#127: Forests and Fungi

A very useful documentary.

There are some clips that would be worth using in the classroom.

A forest is a place where thousands of different organisms meet, creating the most complex network of connections that can exist in nature. A forest is a system in which each organism plays a role and has an assigned function. It is worth considering the importance of fungi for the functioning of the forest – the most mysterious group of organisms in this forest puzzle. 

Director: Michał Ogrodowczyk 

Script and commentary: Tomasz Leski, Marcin Pietras 

Year of production: 2020 

Producer: Forest Film Studio, Polish State Forests

#98: Biome Pyramid

A useful diagram to introduce to students. The Biome Pyramid arguably represents a stable state, and we are no longer in such a stable state.

One might discuss how biome integrity will be changed with climate breakdown and changing demands on ecosystem services. The impact of people on the desertification of marginal land in North Africa would be one example...

#77: Saltmarsh App

Saltmarshes are an interesting ecosystem and the UK has quite a few of them.

There is a Saltmarsh app available to download.

It is a citizen science app inviting people to submit surveys.

It has a useful section which shows saltmarsh plants to help identify them. This will be helpful for anyone going on, or preparing for a field visit to a saltmarsh.

When I taught 'A' level geography in a previous school in West Norfolk, we used to have an annual trip to the coast for fieldwork. I think those schools who would beable to get to a saltmarsh should consider visiting one. 

There is a good opportunity to test a whole range of fieldwork skills in these environments, and they carry a range of risks to assess as well.

The website, from which the app can be downloaded has a useful guide to saltmarshes.

You can identify the locations of your nearest Saltmarsh using the MAGiC app (see the separate posts on this interactive map to see how it works). I've added the layer below and zoomed into the area of the Wash.

#60: School grounds fieldwork: Make a mini pond

If a school is offering the GCSE Natural History, it makes sense for them to take a look at their own grounds to see what the opportunities are for learning about ecosystems. This will be important as there are bound to be quite 'high start up costs' with resourcing and preparing to teach the new specification. I hope to be able to help with that, and this blog is one such resource which I hope people will begin to explore. 

The school where I teach has a small pond area, and a larger pond in the main gardens which are part of a memorial garden to former teachers and students. There are obviously some issues with safety and the need for signage and careful placement.

This article suggests ways to create a mini pond, perhaps on the school site. It's part of Children's Gardening Week.

Ponds are small ecosystems, and students could usefully set them up and explore the trophic relationships which are developing.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust have also created this useful video on how to make a small pond.

#32: International Day for Biological Diversity

There will perhaps be certain days when the teaching of the GCSE Natural History will refer to a particular designation.

22nd of May is designated by UNESCO as International Day for Biological Diversity.

There is reference made to the international report in this area.

There is plenty to discover here.

A case study of Guarani knowledge, for example.