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
The evidence for climate change
- 3 things to know
- Component 02
Overview
Measured 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.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What is an ice core and where is one taken from?
Key term
How do tree rings record past climate?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is the most direct source of evidence for recent climate change?
Model answer
Measured global temperature records from weather stations, ships, buoys and satellites, kept in a consistent form since the nineteenth century.
- 2
What is an ice core and where is one taken from?
Model answer
A long cylinder of ice drilled out of an ice sheet in Antarctica or Greenland, in which each layer is one year’s snowfall.
- 3
How does an ice core reveal the climate of the past?
Model answer
Air bubbles trapped in each layer hold a sample of the atmosphere of that year, so analysing the gases and isotopes gives its temperature and carbon dioxide level.
- 4
How do tree rings record past climate?
Model answer
A tree adds one ring a year, and the ring is wide in a warm wet year and narrow in a cold or dry one.
- 5
What is the study of tree rings called?
Model answer
Dendrochronology.
- 6
What limits tree rings as evidence of past climate?
Model answer
They only reach back a few thousand years and only exist where trees grow, so they say nothing about polar or desert regions.
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