IGCSE Geography / Coastal environments

Coastal ecosystems: coral reefs and mangroves

Edexcel International GCSE Geography (4GE1), chapter 2: Coastal environments, specification point 2.2a, 2.S3. Part of the full course.

Read the revision notes · IGCSE Geography past papers

Coral reefs and mangroves are tropical coastal ecosystems, but they grow in different conditions and occupy different parts of the shore. Knowing their distribution, needs and features helps you describe patterns and explain why each ecosystem is found there.

More lessons in Coastal environments

• Waves and coastal erosion
• Longshore drift and coastal deposition
• Weathering and mass movement on the coast
• Headlands, bays, cliffs and wave-cut platforms
• Caves, arches, stacks and stumps
• Beaches, spits and bars
• Geology and the shape of the coast
• Vegetation, people and sea-level change
• Coastal ecosystems: sand dunes and salt marshes
• Inside one coastal ecosystem: the Sundarbans mangrove
• Coastal ecosystems under threat
• Case study: managing the mangrove
• Conflicts at the coast
• Why coasts flood
• Predicting and preventing coastal flooding
• Hard engineering at the coast
• Soft engineering and shoreline management plans
• Case study: coastal management in The Gambia
• Case study: coastal management in Sri Lanka
• Case study: coastal management in the UK
• Coastal fieldwork: collecting the data
• Coastal fieldwork: results, conclusions and evaluation