VCE Outdoor & Environmental Studies Resources

Unit Two: Environmental impacts
Area of Study One: Discovering natural environments

Types and characteristics of selected natural environments such as alpine, marine, coastal, wetlands, grassland, forest, arid

Mini research project: Tracing a river from its source to the sea

Task

Choose a river that your class will visit, trace its path from its source to the sea, & briefly report what you would expect to find (as detailed below) as the river passes through different environments.

Below is a partially completed idealised model based on the fact that most of Victoria’s major rivers have their source in the Australian Alps.

environment	elevation range	weather patterns	vegetation	water quality	wildlife	human activity
alpine	1400m+	cool & damp in summer, prone to precipitation falling as snow & severe cold & wind in winter	alpine grasses & herbs	clear water, little or no acidity, salinity, suspended solids or other pollutants	permanent residents include: wombats, wild dogs, mountain pygmy possums, currawongs, crane flies	XCSing in winter, mt biking, bushwalking & 4WDing in summer
sub-alpine
wet sclerophyll
dry sclerophyll
floodplains
coastal

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