saddleworth moor

• Saddleworth Moor

  • Located near Manchester, in the Peak District
  • 1000 mm of rainfall, cold and windy
  • Altitude of 250 m
• Saddleworth Moor biotic characteristics

  • Peat moorlands
  • Moss shrubland
• Food chain

  1. Producer gains energy from sun (moss, grass)

  2. Primary consumer gains energy from producers (mountain hare)

  3. Secondary consumer gains energy from primary consumers (buzzard)
• Nutrient cycle

  • Decomposers break down dead organisms
  • Nutrients returned to soil to be recycled by plants
• There is a large store of nitrogen in the peat soil of Saddleworth Moor
• Heavy rainfall


  Causes leaching of nutrients from the soil
• what can Human and physical factorsdo to an ecosystem

  Can disrupt an ecosystem
• Restoration of Saddleworth Moor

  Planting sphagnum moss
• what did planting sphagnum moss do?

  1. stabilized peat soil
  2. caused the return of buzzards
  3. increased insect population
• what disruptions did the 2018 fire cause to the ecosystem

  1. destroyed red grouse nests during nesting season
  2. loss in vegetation
• what did a loss of vegetation lead to in the fire

  1. decrease in birds that ate vegetation + insects
  2. increased erosion of peat soil
  3. buzzards relocated south
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• food web of SM

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• nutrients cycle SM

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