#567: Natural History Reading List #24: "Landmarks"

The latest in a series of posts on suggested books that could be in a GCSE Natural History subject library. The library is building but a long way from the contents of my GeoLibrary blog which has over 600 books on its virtual shelves.

'Landmarks' was written by Robert MacFarlane. 

It was published in 2016, so is coming up for ten years old, which makes me feel old.

There are several reasons for including this book on the reading list.

This description from a New York Times review provides some sort of sense of the contents of the book.

It includes some lists of words which describe some quite specific aspects of landscapes - particularly of words which are disappearing from dictionaries and common usage.

Expanding the vocabulary of young people with respect to Natural History will hopefully be an important part of the new course once the specification is revealed.

#308: Word of the Day: Depauperate

One aspect of preparing for the new course will be to learn a whole range of new natural history vocabulary.

This may come from a whole range of sources, including an approved textbook which is no doubt taking shape somewhere.

Others may include lectures. A recent GA Tyne and Wear Branch poster featured the word depauperate in the details of a lecture on ecosystems. I'd never heard of it before..

Turns out it will probably be quite useful when describing some urban environments.

#58: Urban jungles

Biodiversity isn't just found in the countryside. There is a great deal of biodiversity in many cities. In fact some may be more biodiverse than the surrounding countryside which may have a monoculture of particular crops.

The designation of London as the world's first National Park City shows that there is plenty of wildlife in cities as well, and this was at the heart of the original campaign - developed by Daniel Raven Ellison.

Here is the Natural History Museum's definition of biodiversity.

This is a term which students may be asked to engage with, and certainly be prepared to define the word itself.

Cities and towns have a smoothing effect on biodiversity, tending to favour generalist species like feral pigeons. Those that require a particular habitat, or are intolerant of disturbance or pollution, often can't survive. This is called biotic homogenization.

Animals and plants that can only live in one small area of land - like unique butterflies or flowers - can go locally extinct if the city's conditions are unfavorable to them.

Image - detail from the London National Park City map of green spaces.

You can obtain your own copy of the map from here, priced at £9.99