📝 The Exam One written paper, 60 minutes, three sections. You answer all questions, so revise all three topics: Tropical Rainforests, Urbanisation and Coasts. ⚠️ Be ready to sketch and label a diagram from the Coasts topic (the cave → arch → stack → stump sequence is a classic!). As well as recall, you'll need skills: identifying places on a map, describing what you see, and explaining your ideas — so learn the geographical terms for each topic.
An ecosystem is a community of living things that interact with each other and with the non-living environment (climate, soil, water).
A biome is a large-scale global ecosystem — e.g. tropical rainforest, hot desert, savanna grassland, tundra, polar.
Biotic = the living parts (plants, animals). Abiotic = the non-living parts (sunlight, temperature, water, soil).
Energy flows through a food chain / food web: producers (plants) → consumers (animals) → decomposers (break dead matter down and recycle nutrients).
🌡️ Factors affecting climate
Latitude — distance from the Equator. Near the Equator = hot; near the poles = cold.
Altitude — height above sea level. The higher you go, the colder it gets.
Distance from the sea — the sea heats/cools slowly, so it moderates coastal temperatures.
Ocean currents and prevailing winds carry warmth or cold to different places.
📍 Where & what are tropical rainforests?
Found around the Equator, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn — the Amazon (S. America), the Congo (Africa), and South-East Asia.
Climate is hot (~27°C) and wet (~2000mm rain) all year — there are no real seasons.
Four layers: emergent (tallest trees, 45m+) → canopy (dense roof ~30m, most wildlife) → under-canopy → dark forest floor.
Plant adaptations: drip-tip leaves (shed heavy rain), buttress roots (support tall trees in thin soil), lianas and epiphytes (climb/grow up to reach light).
💚 Why rainforests matter
Incredible biodiversity — the greatest variety of species on Earth.
The "lungs of the planet" — they release oxygen and absorb CO₂ (a giant carbon sink), helping control climate.
Source of medicines, foods and materials, and home to indigenous peoples.
Help regulate the water cycle.
🪓 Deforestation
Causes: logging for timber, clearing for farming (cattle ranching, palm oil, soya), mining, roads, settlement and dams.
Effects: lost biodiversity, more CO₂ → climate change, soil erosion & flooding, and indigenous people losing their homes.
Solutions:selective logging, replanting, ecotourism, agroforestry and protected reserves (sustainable management).
Urbanisation = the increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.
Urban = town/city; rural = countryside.
Megacity = a city with over 10 million people (e.g. Tokyo, Delhi, São Paulo, Lagos).
🏭 Manchester's story
Industrialisation (1800s): Manchester boomed on the cotton/textile industry — nicknamed "Cottonopolis" — pulling in workers; canals & railways grew with it.
Decline (1900s): mills and factories closed as industry moved abroad — unemployment, dereliction and people leaving the inner city.
Regeneration (recent): run-down areas redeveloped — Salford Quays / MediaCityUK, new housing, sport and services (rebuilding after the 1996 city-centre bomb).
➡️ Push & pull factors
Push factors drive people away from the countryside: poverty, few jobs, drought / crop failure, poor services, natural disasters.
Pull factors attract people to cities: better-paid jobs, education, healthcare, services and entertainment.
The fastest-growing cities today are in lower-income countries (LICs/NEEs) across Asia, Africa and South America.
🏚️ Living in slums & tackling the problem
A slum / squatter settlement / shanty town is a poor, overcrowded area, often built illegally — e.g. Dharavi in Mumbai.
Problems: overcrowding, poor sanitation and disease, no clean water or electricity, and informal jobs (no contract — street selling, recycling).
Solutions:self-help / site-and-service schemes (residents given materials & loans to improve homes), upgrading water, sanitation and power, and help from NGOs/charities.
Hydraulic action — the force of water compresses air in cracks and shatters the rock.
Abrasion — waves fling rocks & sand at the cliff, wearing it away like sandpaper.
Attrition — rocks knock together, becoming smaller, rounder and smoother.
Solution — acids in seawater chemically dissolve rock such as limestone.
↗️ Transportation — longshore drift
The prevailing wind pushes waves up the beach at an angle (swash); backwash drags material straight back down (gravity).
This makes sediment zig-zag along the coast — that's longshore drift.
Material is also moved by traction, saltation, suspension and solution.
✏️ Sketch this! Cave → Arch → Stack → Stump
Waves attack a crack → cave → erodes through the headland → arch → roof collapses → stack → stack erodes down to a stump. Practise drawing & labelling this for the exam!