How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley

Author:Tristan Gooley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781473615229
Publisher: SCEPTRE
Published: 2017-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

The Big Relationships

71

to be lots more. There they are. I wonder why there is a small copse of young trees in the middle of their grassy field? Oh I see now, there is a fence around it stopping the sheep grazing there and killing the saplings . . . But, I wonder why the farmer fenced this area off in the first place . . .’

Once we are used to seeing the landscape as a series of habitats, we can begin to ask and answer more interesting questions. And we will find a large number of the answers by thinking about water and rocks.

First we need to clear up a big misconception. There is a tempta-tion to think of places as being different because they are in different places. The Lake District is like the Lake District because it is . . . the Lake District. Yosemite National Park is like Yosemite National Park because it is Yosemite National Park. Beneath the ludicrousness of these statements lurks something big and key.

Rocks and water explain a lot about every natural environment, regardless of where they are. Time for our final set of building blocks: 8. All land is based on rocks of some kind.

9. Some rocks, like chalk, are porous and some, like slate, are non-porous. Non-porous rocks hold water above them and lead to wet areas. Porous rocks let the water filter down through them and lead to dry areas.

10. Some plants and animals like wet conditions and some like drier conditions.

The Big Relationships | 71

This text file has been provided by The Experiment for purposes of review only. It may only be used by authorized recipients and may not be reproduced, copied, circulated, published, or posted online.

72 How to Connect with Nature 11. Some rocks, like granite, lead to soil above them that is acidic and some, like chalk, form soil that is alkaline.

12. Most plants prefer alkaline conditions, so you get more plants and more diverse plants growing in areas with alkaline soils.

13. Rivers carve V-shaped valleys and meander, creating interlocking spurs that result in restricted views. During the last ice age, on the other hand, glaciers carved big, wide U-shaped valleys with great views.

14. Where the sea meets land, the wind creates waves and constant erosion. Depending on the rocks it acts upon, this process gives us beaches, cliffs and many more beguiling landforms.

15. The side of a landmass closest to the sea, in the direction the wind comes from, will get most of the rain. The weather in the UK arrives from the west: Wales is a lot wetter than East Anglia, which is on average 34 per cent drier than the rest of England and Wales.

Granted, that’s quite a few building blocks, but by using them you can not only understand habitats, but you can predict the things you will find in them. This is because once you are aware of these very broad characteristics – acid or alkaline, wet or dry, river or glacier country –

then suddenly the green chaos starts to organize itself before your eyes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.