Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws, it is more protected than a nature park. Cultural practices that equate to the establishment and maintenance of reserved areas for animals date back to antiquity, with King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura establishing one of the world's earliest wildlife sanctuaries in the 3rd century BC. Early reservations had a religious underpinning, such as the'evil forest' areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by many ancient cultures worldwide.
The world's first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall, West Yorkshire. He spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long, 9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers, he tried to encourage birdlife by hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in. He invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Waterton allowed local people access to his reserve and was described by David Attenborough as “one of the first people anywhere to recognise not only that the natural world was of great importance but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it”. Drachenfels was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany; the first major nature reserve was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States, followed by the Royal National Park near Sydney and the Barguzin Nature Reserve of Imperial Russia, the first of zapovedniks set up by a federal government for the scientific study of nature.
In Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined in the relevant statutes used in those states and territories rather than by a single national statute; as of 2016, 1767 out of a total of 11044 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System used the term “nature reserve" in their names. In Brazil, nature reserves are classified as ecological stations estações ecológicas) or biological reserves by the National System of Conservation Units, their main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, excluding direct human interference. Visits are allowed only with permission, only for educational or scientific purposes. Changes to the ecosystems in both types of reserve are allowed to restore and preserve the natural balance, biological diversity and natural ecological processes. Ecological stations are allowed to change the environment within defined limits for the purpose of scientific research.
A wildlife reserve in Brazil is protected, hunting is not allowed, but products and by-products from research may be sold. There are 30 nature reserves in Egypt; those nature reserves were built according to the laws no. 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to help protect the natural resources and the culture and history of those areas; the largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba in the southeast, on the Red Sea coast. Denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas; the largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km2 and is part of Thy National Park. In Sweden, there are 29 national parks; the first of them was established in 1909. In fact, Sweden was the first European country. There are 4,000 nature reserves in Sweden, they comprise about 85% of the surface, protected by the Swedish Environmental Code. In Estonia, there are 5 national parks, more than 100 nature reserves, around 130 landscape protection areas.
The largest nature reserve in Estonia is Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, which covers 342 km2. As of 2017, France counts 10 national parks, around 8 marine parks. In 1995 Germany had 5,314 nature reserves covering 6,845 km2, the largest total areas being in Bavaria with 1,416 km2 and Lower Saxony with 1,275 km2. In Hungary, there are 10 National Parks, more than 15 nature reserves and more than 250 protected areas. Hortobágy National Park is the largest continuous natural grassland in Europe and the oldest national park in Hungary, it is situated on the plain of the Alföld. It was established in 1972. There are alkaline grasslands interrupted by marshes, they have a sizable importance. One of the most spectacular sights of the park is the autumn mi
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth known to locals as Yarmouth, is a seaside town in Norfolk, England. It straddles the narrow mouth of the River Yare 20 miles east of Norwich, it had an estimated population of 38,693 at the 2011 Census, making it the most third populous place in Norfolk. The town has been a seaside resort since 1760, was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century, it is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. For hundreds of years it was a major fishing port, depending on the herring fishery, but its fishing industry suffered a steep decline in the second half of the 20th century, has now all but disappeared; the discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1960s led to a flourishing oil rig supply industry, today it services offshore natural gas rigs. More the development of renewable energy sources offshore wind power, has created further opportunities for support services. A wind farm of 30 generators is within sight of the town on the Scroby Sands. Great Yarmouth rose to prominence and as a major centre of tourism in England when a railway was built in 1844 making it much easier and cheaper for visitors to reach Yarmouth, triggering an influx of settlers.
Wellington Pier was built in 1854, Britannia Pier opened in 1858. Throughout the 20th century, Yarmouth continued to be a booming resort, with a promenade complete with piers, fortune-tellers, public houses, donkey rides, fish-and-chip shops and theatres. In addition to its beach, Yarmouth's major attractions and landmarks include Britannia Pier, the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, as well as the UK's only surviving Victorian seaside cast iron and glass Winter Garden; the town itself is on a 3.1-mile spit sandwiched between the North River Yare. Its well-known features include the main tourist sector on the seafront; the area is linked to Gorleston and Southtown by Haven Bridge and to the A47 and A149 by the Breydon Bridge. The urban area that makes up the town of Great Yarmouth has an area of 8.3 sq mi and according to the Office for National Statistics in 2002 had a population of 47,288. It is the main town in the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth.
The ONS identify a Great Yarmouth Urban Area, which has a population of 68,317, including the sub-areas of Caister-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth. The wider borough of Great Yarmouth has a population of around 92,500, increasing to 97,277 at the 2011 census. Great Yarmouth was 92.8% White British, with the next biggest ethnic demographic being Other White, at 3.5%, which consists of Eastern Europeans. Great Yarmouth lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare, its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest. Henry I placed it under the rule of a reeve. In 1101 the Church of St Nicholas was founded by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich, consecrated in 1119; this was to be the first of several priories founded in what was a wealthy trading centre of considerable importance. In 1208, King John granted a charter to Great Yarmouth; the charter gave his burgesses of Yarmouth general liberties according to the customs of Oxford, a gild merchant and weekly hustings, amplified by several charters asserting the rights of the borough against Little Yarmouth and Gorleston.
The town is bound to send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year one hundred herrings, baked in twenty four pasties, which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton, to convey them to the King. The hospital was founded in Yarmouth in the reign of Edward I by Thomas Fastolfe, father of Thomas Fastolf, the Bishop of St David's.. In 1551, a grammar school founded and the great hall of the old hospital was appropriated to its use; the school was closed from 1757 to 1860, was re-established by the charity trustees, settled in new buildings in 1872. In 1552 Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction confirmed and extended by James I. In 1668 Charles II incorporated Little Yarmouth in the borough by a charter which with one brief exception remained in force until 1703, when Queen Anne replaced the two bailiffs by a mayor. In 1673 during the Third Anglo-Dutch War the Zealand Expedition was assembled in the town. In 1702 the corporation founded the Fishermen's Hospital.
In the early 18th century Yarmouth, as a thriving herring port, was vividly and admiringly described several times in Daniel Defoe's travel journals, in part as follows: Yarmouth is an antient town, much older than Norwich. It is plac'd on a peninsula between the sea; the ships ride here so close, as it were, keeping up one another, with their head-fasts on shore, that for half a mile together, they go cross the stream with their bolsprits over the land, their bowes, or heads, touching the wharf.
Berney Arms
Berney Arms is a remote settlement on the north bank of the River Yare, close to Breydon Water in the English county of Norfolk. It is part of the civil parish of Reedham, is in the district of Broadland and lies within The Broads, it comprises a railway station, a windmill, a farmhouse and a pub which closed in late 2015. The area is not accessible by public road. Berney Arms is in an area of marshland, much of, at or below sea level, it lies on the River Yare just to the west of Breydon Water. The area is part of Berney Marshes RSPB reserve and within the Halvergate Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest; these provide important habitats for a range of plant and invertebrate species as well as providing important wintering grounds for bird species such as Bewick's swan. The area is a Ramsar Site and part of the Broadland Special Protection Area. Ashtree Farm is used by the RSPB as its base for the marshes. Berney Arms can be reached only by train, by boat or on foot and has no public road access, with only a private track running to it.
Berney Arms railway station is a request stop on the Norwich–Great Yarmouth line via Reedham. It is served with a more frequent service on Sundays. Berney Arms is on Wherryman's Way footpaths. Berney Arms takes its name from The Berney Arms public house, situated by the staithe on the north bank of the River Yare and served walkers and boaters who pass through the area, it was closed in 2015 and the owner proposed to turn the pub into a private house, but planning permission was refused. The public house was named after the landowner Thomas Trench Berney who owned the Reedham Cement Works centred on the Berney Arms Windmill; the mill is the tallest windmill in Norfolk at 21.5 metres tall. It was used to grind cement clinker and was converted into a drainage mill, it is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of English Heritage. At one point the mill supported a small settlement of a chapel. Berney sold the land on which the railway was built, on the condition that a stopping place was built to serve the settlement in perpetuity.
Berney Arms was mentioned in Arthur Ransome's popular children's book Coot Club, in the Swallows and Amazons series. Map sources for Berney Arms Berney Arms History Website
Tundra swan
The tundra swan is a small Holarctic swan. The two taxa within it are regarded as conspecific, but are sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan of the Palaearctic and the whistling swan proper of the Nearctic. Birds from eastern Russia are sometimes separated as the subspecies C. c. jankowskii, but this is not accepted as distinct, with most authors including them in C. c. bewickii. Tundra swans are sometimes separated in the subgenus Olor together with the other Arctic swan species. Bewick's swan was named in 1830 by William Yarrell after the engraver Thomas Bewick, who specialised in illustrations of birds and animals. Cygnus is the Latin for "swan", columbianus comes from the Columbia River, the type locality. C. columbianus is the smallest of the Holarctic swans, at 115–150 cm in length, 168–211 cm in wingspan and a weight range of 3.4–9.6 kg. In adult birds, the plumage of both subspecies is white, with black feet, a bill, black, with a thin salmon-pink streak running along the mouthline and – depending on the subspecies – more or less yellow in the proximal part.
The iris is dark brown. In birds living in waters that contains large amounts of iron ions, the head and neck plumage acquires a golden or rusty hue. Pens are smaller than cobs, but do not differ in appearance otherwise. Immatures of both subspecies are white mixed with some dull grey feathering on the head and upper neck, which are entirely light grey, their bills are black with a large dirty-pink patch taking up most of the proximal half and black nostrils, their feet are dark grey with a pinkish hue. Downy young are white below. Bewick's swans are the smaller subspecies. There is a slight size cline, with the eastern birds being larger; these weigh 6.4 kg on average in males and 5.7 kg in females. They measure 115–140 cm in overall length; the tarsus measures 9.2 -- 11.6 cm in the bill 8.2 -- 10.2 cm, averaging 9.1 cm. Bewick's swan is similar in appearance to the parapatric whooper swan, but is smaller, shorter-necked and has a more rounded head shape, with variable bill pattern, but always showing more black than yellow and having a blunt forward edge of the yellow base patch.
Whooper swans have a bill that has more yellow than black and the forward edge of the yellow patch is pointed. The bill pattern for every individual Bewick's swan is unique, scientists make detailed drawings of each bill and assign names to the swans to assist with studying these birds; the eastern birds, apart from being larger, tend towards less yellow on the bill indicating that gene flow across Beringia, while marginal, never ceased. An apparent case of hybridization between a Bewick's and a vagrant whistling swan has been reported from eastern Siberia. Whistling swans weigh 9.5–21 lb – 16 lb on average in males and 14 lb in females –, measure 47–59 in in length. Each wing is 19.7–22.4 in long. C. c. columbianus is distinguished from C. c. bewickii by its larger size and the black bill, with just a small and hard to see yellow spot of variable size at the base. It is distinguished from the allopatric trumpeter swan of North America by that species' much larger size and long bill, black all over except for the pink mouthline, stronger than in the whistling swan.
Note that color variations with more or less yellow, or pink instead of yellow or black, are not exceptional in Bewick's swans, which rarely may have yellowish feet. The small size and the rather short neck, which make it look like a large white goose, are still distinguishing marks. Tundra swans have high-pitched honking calls and sound similar to a black goose, they are vocal when foraging in flocks on their wintering grounds. Contrary to its common name, the ground calls of the whistling swan are not a whistle and neither notably different from that of Bewick's swan; the flight call of the latter is a low and soft ringing bark, bow-wow.... By contrast, the whooper and trumpeter swans' names describe their calls—a deep hooting and a higher-pitched French horn-like honk, respectively. Flying birds of these species are shorter-necked and have a quicker wingbeat than their relatives, but they are impossible to tell apart except by their calls; as their common name implies, the tundra swan breeds in the Arctic and subarctic tundra, where they inhabit shallow pools and rivers.
These birds, unlike mute swans but like the other Arctic swans, are migratory birds. The winter habitat of both subspecies is grassland and marshland near the coast. According to National Geographic, when migrating these birds can fly at altitudes of 8 km in V
Burgh Castle
Burgh Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the east bank of the River Waveney, some 3.7 miles west of Great Yarmouth and within the Broads National Park. The parish was part of Suffolk until 1974. Burgh Castle is the site of one of several Roman forts constructed to hold cavalry as a defence against Saxon raids up the rivers of the east and south coasts of southern Britain; this was Gariannonum, a name that appears in a some sources. The fort is rectangular 205 m by 100 m, with three of the tall massively built walls still extant; the site is owned by the Norfolk Archaeological Trust with the walls in the care of English Heritage. The site is open to the public and has a major access and interpretation scheme created by the Trust, with funding and collaboration from Natural England and English Heritage. There is a timber viewing platform overlooking the rivers and marshes which provides an ideal spot for wildlife observation. Since William Camden, Burgh Castle has been suggested as the site of Cnobheresburg, the unknown place in East Anglia, where in about 630 the first Irish monastery in southern England was founded by Saint Fursey as part of the Hiberno-Scottish mission described by Bede.
Historians are unable to agree on a better one. The Roman fort at Burgh Castle was excavated by Charles Green during 1958-61. A detailed report by Norfolk Museums Service in 1983 shows that there was never any monastic settlement in Burgh Castle itself; the church of Burgh Castle, St Peter and St Paul, one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk, has been a Grade II* listed building since November 1954. Points of interest include a well-preserved 14th-century "East Anglian Lion Font" and some magnificent stained glass windows the small lancet "Fursey" window. In 2015 the first stage of a major restoration programme, repairs to the north aisle, was completed; the church is open daily from 10am to 5pm April to October and at weekends from 10am to 3pm during March and November. The civil parish of Burgh Castle has an area of 1,670 acres and in the 2001 census had a population of 955 in 376 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish today falls within the district of Great Yarmouth.
However prior to the Local Government Act 1972, the parish was within Lothingland Rural District in Suffolk. The House of Burke take the original form of their surname de Burgh, from the area. Map sources for Burgh Castle Burgh Castle fort at Norfolk Archaeological Trust Burgh Castle at genuki.org.uk Burgh Castle at English Heritage Photographs of Burgh Castle and the church of St Peter and St Paul at roundtowerchurches.de Photographs of the church and fort at flickr.com Hursey Pilgrims - Christian pilgrimage to Burgh Castle
River Bure
The River Bure is a river in the county of Norfolk, most of it in the Broads. The Bure rises near Melton Constable, 11 miles upstream of Aylsham, the original head of navigation. Nowadays, the head of navigation is 10 miles downstream at Coltishall Bridge. After Aylsham Lock and Burgh Bridge, the Bure passes through Buxton Lammas, Belaugh, Horning, Ludham Bridge, past St. Benet's Abbey, through Oby, Stokesby, along the northern border of the Halvergate Marshes, through Runham and Great Yarmouth where it meets Breydon Water and flows into the sea at Gorleston, it has the River Thurne and the River Ant. There is Muck Fleet which connects the Trinity Broads to the main network; the River Bure has been navigable for some 31 miles as far as Horstead Mill, near Coltishall, since at least 1685, when cargoes of coal and timber were carried to within 1 mile of Meyton Manor House. It was stated at the time. Vessels could not travel beyond Coltishall, so Aylsham was served by carts, either loaded from wherries at Coltishall and carried north, or loaded from boats at Cromer and carried south.
Plans to extend the limit of navigation were drawn up in 1773. An Act of Parliament was obtained on 7 April 1773, authorising improvements from Coltishall to Aylsham, which John Adey estimated would cost £6,000; some £1,500 had been raised or promised, the balance was to be funded by subscriptions. Adey acted as clerk to the Bure Commissioners. Work began on 29 June 1774, the lock and cut at Coltishall were completed by 16 March 1775, when the first boat used the lock. Progress after, slow, for in October 1777 Smith announced that he had spent £3,600 so far, but estimated that a further £2,951 would be required to complete the work, it appears that the money had run out, but Smith was persuaded to carry on after 18 traders and landowners provided loans of between £50 and £150. John Green of Wroxham was appointed as joint engineer in March 1779, the new waterway opened in October 1779. Five locks were provided, at Aylsham, Burgh-near-Aylsham Mill, Oxnead Mill, Buxton Mill at Oxnead Lamas and Coltishall.
Within a month, the Commissioners found that silting of the river bed had occurred, reducing the navigable depth, dredging of the river bed using a scoop, known locally as a didle, was a regular activity. Small wherries, capable of carrying 13 tons, were used for the carriage of flour, agricultural produce and timber. A brickyard at Oxnead was served by the boats, while below Coltishall, marl was carried away from pits which were served by a system of navigable dikes on the estate of Horstead Hall; the marl trade continued until 1870. At each of the mills, cuts were made to accommodate the locks, but at Aylsham a longer cut of about 1 mile was made, ending at a basin where warehouses were constructed. Boats could get from there to Aylsham Mill Pool, which enabled them to deliver grain and carry flour away; the navigation was reasonably successful until 1880, when railway competition arrived, in the form of the East Norfolk Railway, which followed the Bure valley. The East Norfolk became part of the Great Eastern Railway.
Further competition arrived in 1883, when the Eastern and Midlands Railway opened a railway station near the terminal basin on its line from Melton Constable to North Walsham. Despite this, wherries were using the navigation until 1912, when a disastrous flood damaged the locks. Assessment of the damage suggested that repairs would cost £4,000, which the Commissioners could not find, so the navigation was abandoned; this act was formalised in 1928, when it was abandoned. Oxnead Lamas Lock was filled in, in 1933, but the other structures remain, although the lock gates have been replaced by sluices. Bure Valley Railway, a heritage railway Bure Valley Path Bure Marshes NNR, a national nature reserve Bure, a Category C men's prison in Scottow, Norfolk named after the river. Visit Aylsham and the Bure Valley Watermills & Windmills on the River Bure River Bure Literary History
Biology
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, physiological mechanisms and evolution. Despite the complexity of the science, there are certain unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. Biology recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, evolution as the engine that propels the creation and extinction of species. Living organisms are open systems that survive by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis. Sub-disciplines of biology are defined by the research methods employed and the kind of system studied: theoretical biology uses mathematical methods to formulate quantitative models while experimental biology performs empirical experiments to test the validity of proposed theories and understand the mechanisms underlying life and how it appeared and evolved from non-living matter about 4 billion years ago through a gradual increase in the complexity of the system.
See branches of biology. The term biology is derived from the Greek word βίος, bios, "life" and the suffix -λογία, -logia, "study of." The Latin-language form of the term first appeared in 1736 when Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus used biologi in his Bibliotheca botanica. It was used again in 1766 in a work entitled Philosophiae naturalis sive physicae: tomus III, continens geologian, phytologian generalis, by Michael Christoph Hanov, a disciple of Christian Wolff; the first German use, was in a 1771 translation of Linnaeus' work. In 1797, Theodor Georg August Roose used the term in the preface of a book, Grundzüge der Lehre van der Lebenskraft. Karl Friedrich Burdach used the term in 1800 in a more restricted sense of the study of human beings from a morphological and psychological perspective; the term came into its modern usage with the six-volume treatise Biologie, oder Philosophie der lebenden Natur by Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, who announced: The objects of our research will be the different forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which these phenomena occur, the causes through which they have been effected.
The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate by the name biology or the doctrine of life. Although modern biology is a recent development, sciences related to and included within it have been studied since ancient times. Natural philosophy was studied as early as the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Indian subcontinent, China. However, the origins of modern biology and its approach to the study of nature are most traced back to ancient Greece. While the formal study of medicine dates back to Hippocrates, it was Aristotle who contributed most extensively to the development of biology. Important are his History of Animals and other works where he showed naturalist leanings, more empirical works that focused on biological causation and the diversity of life. Aristotle's successor at the Lyceum, wrote a series of books on botany that survived as the most important contribution of antiquity to the plant sciences into the Middle Ages. Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz, Al-Dīnawarī, who wrote on botany, Rhazes who wrote on anatomy and physiology.
Medicine was well studied by Islamic scholars working in Greek philosopher traditions, while natural history drew on Aristotelian thought in upholding a fixed hierarchy of life. Biology began to develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's dramatic improvement of the microscope, it was that scholars discovered spermatozoa, bacteria and the diversity of microscopic life. Investigations by Jan Swammerdam led to new interest in entomology and helped to develop the basic techniques of microscopic dissection and staining. Advances in microscopy had a profound impact on biological thinking. In the early 19th century, a number of biologists pointed to the central importance of the cell. In 1838, Schleiden and Schwann began promoting the now universal ideas that the basic unit of organisms is the cell and that individual cells have all the characteristics of life, although they opposed the idea that all cells come from the division of other cells. Thanks to the work of Robert Remak and Rudolf Virchow, however, by the 1860s most biologists accepted all three tenets of what came to be known as cell theory.
Meanwhile and classification became the focus of natural historians. Carl Linnaeus published a basic taxonomy for the natural world in 1735, in the 1750s introduced scientific names for all his species. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, treated species as artificial categories and living forms as malleable—even suggesting the possibility of common descent. Although he was opposed to evolution, Buffon is a key figure in the history of evolutionary thought. Serious evolutionary thinking originated with the works of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the first to present a coherent theory of evolution, he posited that evolution was the result of environmental stress on properties of animals, meaning that the more and rigorously an organ was used, the more complex and efficient it would become, thus adapting the animal to its environment. Lamarck believed that these acquired traits could be passed on to the animal's offspring, who would
