GCSE · Biology · AQA · Spec 8461

Land use and peat bogs

Build, quarry, farm or dump waste, and you take land from other animals and plants. Destroy a peat bog for garden compost, and you pay twice. Why twice?

Biology · Land use and peat bogs

Build the web yourself

Draw every link you think is real, with the arrow pointing from a cause to what it leads to. One arrow ends at less land for other animals and plants. Everything else traces back to a destroyed peat bog, and it doesn't all go the same way.

Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere
Humans build, quarry, farm and dump waste
Lower biodiversity in that habitat
Peat bogs are destroyed to make garden compost
Less land for other animals and plants
The peat decays or is burned
A smaller area of peat bog habitat

Add a link

This factor……made this happen or worse

No links yet.

Predict, then check

Look back at the web if you like, but commit before you reveal.

Peat has been taken from a destroyed bog. Half of it is burned. The other half is left alone to decay. Which half releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere?

Biology · What exactly is lost?

Which idea do you hold?

A large part of a peat bog is destroyed to make garden compost. Only a small area of bog is left.

Which is closest to what you think happens to the biodiversity of that bog?

It's the animals that lose out. The plants aren't really affected.Biodiversity falls because there are fewer living things there in total.There is less bog habitat, so a smaller variety of plant, animal and microorganism species lives there.Biodiversity isn't the problem. The only harm is the carbon dioxide from the peat.

How sure are you?

I'm sureI think soI'm guessing

It's the animals that lose out. The plants aren't really affected.

This is a common misconception

Animals are the easiest living things to picture in a bog, but they aren't the only ones. Destroying the bog reduces the variety of different plant species, animal species and microorganism species that live there. All three groups lose out.

Biodiversity falls because there are fewer living things there in total.

This is a common misconception

Biodiversity isn't a head-count. It's about variety: how many different species live there. A smaller area of bog habitat means a smaller variety of plant, animal and microorganism species. That drop in variety is the drop in biodiversity.

There is less bog habitat, so a smaller variety of plant, animal and microorganism species lives there.

This matches the evidence

Exactly right. Destroying the bog reduces the area of the habitat, and that reduces the variety of different plant, animal and microorganism species living there. That variety is biodiversity.

Biodiversity isn't the problem. The only harm is the carbon dioxide from the peat.

This is a common misconception

Carbon dioxide from decaying or burning peat is one harm, but it isn't the only one. Shrinking the habitat is a separate harm: it reduces the variety of plant, animal and microorganism species living there. Destroying a peat bog does both.

Biodiversity means variety: the variety of different plant, animal and microorganism species living in a habitat. Shrink the peat bog habitat and that variety shrinks with it.

Biology · Your turn to explain

Write it, then mark it

Peat bogs are destroyed to produce garden compost. Explain two ways in which this harms the environment. [4 marks]

Your answer

0 words · your answer stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.

The mark scheme

The area of peat bog habitat is reduced (1 mark)
So the variety of plant, animal and microorganism species living there is reduced (biodiversity falls) (1 mark)
The peat decays or is burned (1 mark)
Which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (1 mark)

Model answer

First, destroying peat bogs reduces the area of this habitat. With less habitat, there is a smaller variety of the different plant, animal and microorganism species that live there, so biodiversity is reduced. Second, the peat that is removed can decay or be burned, and either way carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.

Four marks, two branches, two steps each. The most common gap is writing 'it releases carbon dioxide when burned' and stopping: that misses decay, and it misses the whole habitat branch.

UK note

In AQA GCSE Biology, this topic sits in Ecology, which is assessed on Paper 2. 'Explain' means give the reasons, so each consequence needs its cause as well as its effect.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

Humans take land from other living things in four big ways. Peat bogs show what that can cost, twice over.

What you need to know

Four human activities reduce the land available for other animals and plants: building, quarrying, farming and dumping waste.
Peat bogs, and other areas of peat, are destroyed to produce garden compost.
Destroying peat bogs has two separate consequences: lower biodiversity, and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

The big picture

Humans reduce the land available for other animals and plants by building, quarrying, farming and dumping waste. Peat bogs are one example of what that costs. Destroying peat bogs, and other areas of peat, to produce garden compost has two separate consequences. It reduces the area of the habitat, and so the variety of plant, animal and microorganism species living there: biodiversity falls. And the decay or burning of the peat releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Key points

1Building, quarrying, farming and dumping waste each take land, leaving less land available for other animals and plants.

2Destroying peat bogs to produce garden compost reduces the area of that habitat.

3A smaller habitat supports a smaller variety of plant, animal and microorganism species. That variety is biodiversity, so biodiversity falls.

4When peat decays or is burned, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Burning is not the only route.

.we-_R_18slubsnpfiv5ubrb_ [data-we-step]{display:flex !important}.we-_R_18slubsnpfiv5ubrb_ [data-we-solution]{display:block !important}.we-_R_18slubsnpfiv5ubrb_ [data-we-reveal]{display:none !important}

Worked example

Problem

A plan would turn an area of wild land into a waste dump, and build new houses on the land next to it. A student says: "Only the waste dump is a problem for wildlife. Houses aren't rubbish, so building them doesn't take anything away." Is the student right?

⚠ Watch out

Thinking that peat only releases carbon dioxide when it is burned. The decay of peat releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere too, so peat left to decay is not harmless.

🧠

Memory hook

Build, quarry, farm, dump: less land for the rest. One bag of peat compost, two costs: fewer species, and carbon dioxide out. Rot or burn, the gas still escapes.

✓

Check yourself

Close the page. Name the four ways humans take land from other animals and plants, then explain the two separate harms of destroying a peat bog.

Flashcards

(8)

Which four human activities reduce the land available for other animals and plants?

Building, quarrying, farming and dumping waste.

Why are peat bogs destroyed?

To produce garden compost.

What happens to the area of a habitat when a peat bog is destroyed?

It is reduced. There is less of that habitat left.

What is biodiversity?

The variety of different plant, animal and microorganism species that live in an area.

Which kinds of species lose out when a peat bog habitat shrinks?

Plants, animals and microorganisms: all three.

Name the two ways peat can release carbon dioxide.

By decaying, or by being burned.

Where does the carbon dioxide from decaying or burning peat go?

Into the atmosphere.

Destroying a peat bog has two separate consequences. What are they?

Lower biodiversity, because there is less habitat. And carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when the peat decays or is burned.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

Learning with Lightbulb is opening soon

You can use this lesson now. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know when the full Lightbulb experience is ready.

Keep me posted

Build the web yourself

Which idea do you hold?

Write it, then mark it

More AQA GCSE Biology topics