Key term
OCR GCSE Geography A J383
Ecosystems of the Planet
Topic overviewAbiotic and biotic components, and how ecosystems interactThe world’s biomes: where they are and what they are likeWhere the tropical rainforests are, and what they are likeWhere the coral reefs are, and what they are likeRainforest processes and nutrient cyclingTwo threatened ecosystems: a rainforest and a coral reef
Environmental Threats to Our Planet
Topic overviewClimate change through the Quaternary, and since 1000ADThe evidence for climate changeNatural causes of climate change, and the enhanced greenhouse effectThe consequences of climate changeThe world’s climatic regions and global atmospheric circulationHow global circulation produces extreme weatherTropical storms: causes, distribution and frequencyA drought caused by El Niño or La Niña
Fieldwork Skills
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewConstructing maps, and reading cross-sections and transectsCoordinates, scale, distance and reading information from a mapGradient, contours, spot heights and GISChoosing, constructing and presenting graphs and chartsReading and interpreting the main graph and chart typesNumber, area, scale and the relationships between unitsProportion and ratio, and measures of central tendency and spreadPercentages and percentiles, and designing data collection sheetsReading tables, and describing relationships in bivariate dataTrend lines and lines of best fitPredicting from data, and spotting weak statistical presentationDrawing and justifying conclusions from dataInterpreting images and written sources, and recognising biasJudging the limits of maps, graphs, statistics and images
Landscapes of the UK
People of the Planet
Topic overviewDefining and measuring developmentThe global pattern of development: ACs, EDCs and LIDCsWhy development is uneven, and the role of aidA developing or emerging country: its context and economyRostow’s model and the country’s path of developmentCities, megacities and world citiesWhy urban growth rates differ around the worldRapid urbanisation in poorer countries: causes and effectsA major city in a poorer or emerging country
People of the UK
Topic overviewThe UK’s trade, media and cultural links with the worldThe UK’s geographical diversity and its inequalitiesUneven development within the UK, and the effects of economic growthHow the UK’s population structure has changed since 1900Immigration into the UK in the twenty-first centuryUrban trends in the UK and their effectsA major UK city: its people, challenges and ways of life
UK Environmental Challenges
Topic overviewAir masses, the North Atlantic Drift and the UK’s extreme weatherA UK flood event: causes, effects and responsesHow people use, modify and change UK ecosystemsThe UK’s renewable and non-renewable energy sourcesChanging UK energy supply and demand, and sustainable useRenewables in the UK, and the future of fossil fuelsWhat shapes the UK’s energy choices
Environmental Threats to Our Planet
- 8 subtopics
- 24 things to know
- Component 02
What Environmental Threats to Our Planet covers
Environmental Threats to Our Planet is examined in Component 02, The World Around Us. It covers climate change through the Quaternary, and since 1000AD, the evidence for climate change, natural causes of climate change, and the enhanced greenhouse effect, the consequences of climate change, the world’s climatic regions and global atmospheric circulation, how global circulation produces extreme weather, tropical storms: causes, distribution and frequency and A drought caused by El Niño or La Niña.
The 8 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Climate change through the Quaternary, and since 1000ADWhen the Quaternary began, its swings between glacial and interglacial phases, the interglacial we live in now, why sea level fell in each ice age, the medieval warming, the Little Ice Age and modern warming in order, and how modern warming differs from earlier changes.Open →
- The evidence for climate changeMeasured global temperature records, how ice cores and tree rings reveal past climate, dendrochronology and its limits, paintings, diaries and other written records as evidence, why they are less reliable than measurements, and why scientists combine several kinds of evidence.Open →
- Natural causes of climate change, and the enhanced greenhouse effectSunspots, the Milankovitch cycles of eccentricity, obliquity and precession, how volcanic eruptions cool the climate for a short time, why natural causes cannot explain recent warming, the greenhouse and enhanced greenhouse effects, and the carbon released by fossil fuels, farming and deforestation.Open →
- The consequences of climate changeRising sea level from thermal expansion and meltwater and the places it threatens, shrinking Arctic sea ice and how ice loss speeds warming, coral bleaching, more extreme weather, threats to food supply, ocean acidification, species moving towards the poles, and climate refugees.Open →
- The world’s climatic regions and global atmospheric circulationWhere the equatorial, hot desert, savanna, temperate and polar climates are found and what each is like, why the equator receives more solar energy than the poles, what global circulation achieves, the Hadley, Ferrel and Polar cells, and the rising and sinking air of the Hadley cell.Open →
- How global circulation produces extreme weatherWhy land near the equator is so wet and land near 30° so dry, the trade winds, how the Earth's rotation deflects surface winds, why the polar regions are dry, the jet stream and the extremes it brings, the seasonal shift of the rain belt, and changeable mid-latitude weather.Open →
- Tropical storms: causes, distribution and frequencyThe sea conditions and latitudes tropical storms need, how a storm builds and why it weakens over land, the eye, where storms are concentrated, and the causes, distribution and changing pattern of drought.Open →
- A drought caused by El Niño or La NiñaNormal conditions across the tropical Pacific, El Niño and La Niña and the regions each turns dry, how often they occur, how a shift in warm water leads to drought, a drought's effects on people and the environment, short-term responses and long-term adaptation, and Ethiopia's 2015–16 drought and its Productive Safety Net Programme.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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Where are the world’s hot deserts, and what is their climate like?
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What effects of a drought event on the environment should you be able to give?
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What is the overall pattern of global temperature through the Quaternary?
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What is meant by a glacial period?
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What is the most direct source of evidence for recent climate change?
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What is an ice core and where is one taken from?
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How is the number of sunspots thought to affect the climate?
Process
What two processes are making global sea level rise?
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Which places are most threatened by rising sea level?
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What is the tropical grassland or savanna climate like?
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Why does the land near the equator receive such extreme rainfall totals?
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What are the trade winds and why are they so persistent?
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What sea conditions must be present before a tropical storm can develop?
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What is the eye of a tropical storm?
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What are conditions across the tropical Pacific like in a normal year?
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What is meant by an interglacial?
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How do tree rings record past climate?
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What are the Milankovitch cycles?
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Why does the loss of ice speed up warming still further?
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Which climate type covers the mid-latitudes, and what are its seasons like?
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Why are the polar regions among the driest places on Earth?
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Has the number of tropical storms forming each year clearly risen?
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Which regions tend to suffer drought during a La Niña event?
Take Environmental Threats to Our Planet further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Glacial vs Interglacial
Glacial: a cold phase lasting roughly a hundred thousand years when ice sheets advanced. Interglacial: a warmer phase between two cold phases, ten to fifteen thousand years long, when ice retreated.
Medieval warming vs Little Ice Age
Medieval warming: a mild spell around and after 1000AD when vines grew further north in Europe. Little Ice Age: a long cool spell of advancing glaciers and winters cold enough to freeze the Thames.
Greenhouse effect vs Enhanced greenhouse effect
Greenhouse effect: atmospheric gases absorbing heat radiated from the surface and re-radiating it downwards, keeping the planet warm. Enhanced greenhouse effect: the extra warming caused by human activity adding more heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
When did the Quaternary period begin?
Model answer
About 2.6 million years ago, and it runs through to the present day.
- 2
What is the overall pattern of global temperature through the Quaternary?
Model answer
Temperature has swung repeatedly between long cold glacial phases and shorter warm interglacial phases rather than staying steady.
- 3
What is meant by a glacial period?
Model answer
A cold phase, lasting roughly a hundred thousand years, when ice sheets and glaciers advanced far beyond their present limits.
- 4
What is meant by an interglacial?
Model answer
A warmer phase between two glacials, usually only ten to fifteen thousand years long, when the ice retreated.
- 5
Which kind of climate phase are we living in today?
Model answer
An interglacial, which began roughly twelve thousand years ago when the last ice advance ended.
- 6
Why did sea level fall during each ice age?
Model answer
So much water was locked up in growing ice sheets and glaciers that it never returned to the oceans.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Environmental Threats to Our Planet revision questions
- What does Environmental Threats to Our Planet cover in OCR GCSE Geography A?
- 8 subtopics: climate change through the quaternary, and since 1000ad, the evidence for climate change, natural causes of climate change, and the enhanced greenhouse effect, the consequences of climate change, the world’s climatic regions and global atmospheric circulation, how global circulation produces extreme weather, tropical storms: causes, distribution and frequency and a drought caused by el niño or la niña. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Environmental Threats to Our Planet organised?
- By the OCR J383 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Environmental Threats to Our Planet, on a schedule.
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