Chapter 2 Flashcards
Some sources of air pollution produce tiny black particles that can be transported around the world and settle on regions covered in snow and ice. Based on the albedo effect, how might this air pollution contribute to warming global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, and rising sea levels?
Dark particles settling on ice will cause low albedo to occur so sun rays will be absorb causing more melting of the ice and snow. This will lead to rising sea levels and increased global warming.
If Earth was not tilted on its axis, how would it affect the seasonality of rainfall at the equator?
No seasonality so no change in amount of rainfall.
What parallels can you draw between the processes that drive Hadley cells versus rain shadows?
In the range of latitudes in the northern hemisphere some of the arm air from the hadley cells that descends at 30 degrees north latitude moved towards the north pole. The movement of air in this region helps redistribute the warm air of the tropics towards the middle latitudes. In rain shadows, dry and warm air descends to the other side of the mountain, becomes warmer and then travels across the lowlands beyond
If there were no Coriolis effect, what would happen to atmospheric currents and ocean currents?
Surface winds wont be able to be deflected towards the right in the Northern hemisphere and towards the left in the southern hemisphere. Air would flow high pressure to low pressure. Then ocean currents cant be deflected. Terrestrial climate will be affected cuz then the ocean also will not be able to distribute cold and warm ocean waters around the world.
What are the processes that are responsible for the locations of the world’s major deserts?
One process that is responsible is the areas associated with dry descending air of hadley cells developing these descents at 20 to 30 north and south of the equator. Another process is the descending of dry and warm air to the other side of the mountains, which create rain shadows that are a similar process that occurs in hadley cells. A third process is cold ocean currents causing coastal desert formation by producing fog that holds humidity, which removes a lot of moisture from area it passes.
Compare and contrast the factors used to categorize terrestrial biomes with those used to categorize aquatic biomes.
Terrestrial biomes are categorized using dominant plant terms that are associated with distinct patterns seasonal temperatures and precipitation. Aquatic biomes are primarily categorized based by depth, flow, and salinity. In aquatic ecosystems the major producers are often algae and not plants. As a result these biomes are not easily categorized by dominant growth forms of the predators. Both biomes are similar in that they contain a variety of different habitats that contain various organisms that display high biodiversity.
How do atmospheric currents help to determine the locations of tropical seasonal forests?
Intense solar energy from the sunlight strikes the earth and the earth surface gets warm causing a rise of moist air that cools and releases water as precipitation. When the air rises it becomes cold and dry at the top of the region and the air descends towards the poles at 30 north or 30 south of the latitude. As the air continues to descend it becomes warm and moist towards equator which is where most tropical seasonal forests are by.
Given your knowledge of terrestrial biomes, why can temperate seasonal forests retain more of their soil fertility than tropical rainforests can after they are logged?
In temperate deciduous forests, nutrients do not leach out of the upper layers of soils. There is more precipitation occurring than evaporation. Temperate deciduous forests are more productive and replenish nutrients quickly. Most nutrients in tropical rainforests are stored in vegetation that is carried away or burned. Thick layers of clay and humus in tropical rainforests prevent soil nutrients from being replenished.
If northern latitudes continue to become warmer over the centuries, what effect might this have on lake circulation during the spring and fall?
The water temp in lakes will be warmer and no stratification will occur in the winter.
Stratification: The condition of a lake or pond when the warmer, less dense surface water floats on the cooler, denser water below. The depth of the water will become similar to the surface in terms of the temperature. As a result , a thermocline is not established and fall/spring turnover can not bring o2 to deep waters or nutrients to surface. Fall turnover: The vertical mixing of lake water that occurs in fall, assisted by winds that drive the surface currents.
Compare and contrast swamps, marshes, and bogs.
Swamps contain emergent trees and one example is the bald cypress swamp in reelfoot lake state park, tennessee. Mashes contain emergent non woody vegetation such as cattails. In contrast to swamps and marshes, bogs are characterized by acid waters and contain a variety of plants such as sphagnum mosses and stunted trees that are specifically adapted to these conditions. Due to acidic conditions bogs also experience slow decomposition of matter that it accumulates as peat.
