Human impacts on a biome
Every biome is now partly a human landscape. Describing impact well means naming the cause, the effect and the scale.
Part of your national curriculum
- Human and physical geography: Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems
- Human and physical geography: Understand the use of natural resources, including energy, food, minerals and water
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Describe human impacts on a biome
Key learning points
- • Deforestation
- • Management responses
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 9 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 9
Watch first
Human impacts on a biome
An English teaching video on this topic from Learn Bright. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Describe human impacts on a biome
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 9
Learn
Deforestation
Logging, cattle ranching and soy farming clear rainforest. Soils exposed to heavy rain lose nutrients quickly, so cleared land often disappoints.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 9
Learn
Management responses
Protected areas, selective logging, agroforestry and certification schemes each trade off income against conservation.
Quick check
Part 4 of 9
Quick check
Rainforest soils are often…
Quick check
Part 5 of 9
Quick check
Selective logging means…
Quick check
Part 6 of 9
Quick check
A good impact answer includes…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 9
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 8 of 9
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Human impacts on a biome
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Rainforest soils are often…
2. Selective logging means…
3. A good impact answer includes…
Lesson round-up
Part 9 of 9
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Flooding on the River Calder
The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.
Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.
Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
- Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
- Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.
Case study notes
WritingWrite the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
WritingAnswer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
DiagramDraw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working outPlot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.
1 graph + 1 sentence
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 9 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Understand the key processes in biology relating to biomes, vegetation belts and ecosystems
- Not looked at yet
Understand the use of natural resources, including energy, food, minerals and water