7. Ecological
Succession
7.2 Conservation of Habitats
Starter

What is conservation? Come up with a
definition.
Starter

Conservation is the management of the
Earth’s natural resources in such a way
that maximum use of them can be made in
the future.
Learning Objectives


Describe what conservation is
Explain how managing succession can help to
conserve habitats
Success Criteria
 You can state the reasons for conservation and
give examples of managing succession leading
to the conservation of habitats
What is conservation?
Conservation involves humans intervening
to maintain ecosystems and biodiversity
 It can involve caring for existing resources
or reclaiming those that have already been
damaged by human activity

Reasons for Conservation

In pairs (or alone, if you really want), come
up with a list of reasons for conservation
Reasons for Conservation
Ethical: respect for living things, other
species should be allowed to coexist
 Economic: living organisms have a huge
gene pool and may have the capacity to
make millions of substances
 Cultural and Aesthetic: habitats enrich
our lives and inspire writers, poets etc who
entertain and fulfil us

Conserving habitats by managing
succession
Climax communities do not contain all the
species that existed in earlier stages
 Maintaining habitats at different stages of
succession can keep these species
present, by preventing change to the next
stage

UK example
Much of the higher ground in the UK is
moorland, sheep are grazed and the
heather often burned on this land
 This prevents the climax community being
reached as the young tree saplings are
destroyed, stopping progression to
deciduous woodland

Task

Work through the Application and How
Science Works questions on page 109110 of the textbook
Learning Objectives


Describe what conservation is
Explain how managing succession can help to
conserve habitats
Success Criteria
 You can state the reasons for conservation and
give examples of managing succession leading
to the conservation of habitats