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Year 10
AQA

Changes in small-scale ecosystems

I can understand how natural changes and human activities affect the balance of small-scale ecosystems.

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New
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Year 10
AQA

Changes in small-scale ecosystems

I can understand how natural changes and human activities affect the balance of small-scale ecosystems.

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Share activities with pupils
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These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Ecosystems are finely balanced and can be affected by changing one component.
  2. College Lake is the site of a range of small-scale ecosystems: lake, marshland and chalk grassland.
  3. Natural events as well as human actions can create changes that affect the complexity and productivity of ecosystems.

Keywords

  • Biotic - living components of an ecosystem, such as plants and animals

  • Abiotic - non-living components of an ecosystem such as soils and climate

  • Food web - a complex interconnection of food chains within an ecosystem

  • Habitat - the natural home or environment in which an animal or plant lives

  • Biodiversity - the variety of plants and animals in the world or in a particular habitat

Common misconception

Changes that affect ecosystems are always created by people.

Naturally-occurring events such as storms also affect ecosystems. For example, a storm could fell trees which may have been a habitat for other species.


To help you plan your year 10 geography lesson on: Changes in small-scale ecosystems, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Avoid using the term 'man-made' and instead utilise the phrase 'created by/as a result of human activities'.
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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is the use of light energy to make food called?
Correct Answer: photosynthesis, Photosynthesis
Q2.
Identify the producer or producers in this food web.
An image in a quiz
bee
Correct answer: cabbage
caterpillar
Correct answer: lavender
owl
Q3.
Which of the following would be considered biotic?
Correct answer: animals
Correct answer: bacteria
pond water
soil
sunshine
Q4.
Living organisms are one of the stores of nutrients within an ecosystem. What name is given to this store?
Correct Answer: biomass, biomass store, Biomass
Q5.
Which of the following are examples of losses of nutrients from an ecosystem?
rain washing chemicals out of the atmosphere and into an ecosystem
Correct answer: leaching removing soluble minerals from the soil store
littering transferring nutrients from the biomass store to the litter store
Correct answer: runoff removing nutrients from the litter store
Q6.
Which of these is the best description of nutrient cycling?
nature's decomposition service
nature's laundry service
nature's power station
Correct answer: nature's recycling system
Q2 UYSEG

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
An is a community of organisms (such as plants and animals) that interact with one another and their non-living environment.
Correct Answer: ecosystem, Ecosystem
Q2.
If a disease meant that there were fewer oak trees, what might the likely impact be on the number of thrushes?
An image in a quiz
there would be an increase because there would be more worms and snails
Correct answer: there would be a decrease because there would be fewer worms and snails
there would be no change as thrushes do not eat oak leaves
Q3.
Identify the apex predators in this food web.
An image in a quiz
bramble
aphids
moth larva
Correct answer: owls
Correct answer: stoats
Q4.
Put the stages of eutrophication in the correct order.
1 - a farmer applies nitrate-rich fertiliser to fields
2 - run-off linked to heavy rain carries nitrates to the river
3 - there is a rapid growth of algae in the river water
4 - fish die due to the lack of oxygen in the river
Q5.
Which of the following agricultural practices can disrupt the balance within an ecosystem, rather than restoring it?
Correct answer: the removal of hedgerows to enlarge fields
the creation of wetland areas
hedge planting
Correct answer: the use of pesticides to protect crops
the addition of wildflower strips around fields
Q6.
College Lake near Pitstone in Buckinghamshire, is a nature reserve that has developed on the site of a former chalk and cement works.
Correct Answer: quarry, mine
Q2 UYSEG