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Ecological systems and plants sciences - First Year uni > Climate change > Flashcards

Climate change Flashcards

1
Q

How does climate affect biodiversity?

A

It affects the abundance and distribution of virtually all organisms

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2
Q

How are ectotherms affects by climate?

A

environmental conditions directly determine their growth and developmental rates

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3
Q

Define latitudinal?

A

relating to the position of a place north or south of the earth’s equator.

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4
Q

Describe the 3 climates of latitudinal scale?

A

polar; ; considered stable as consistently cold
temperate; big seasonal fluctuations, very variable
tropical; 12;12 daylight all year round not much seasonal fluctuations,

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5
Q

What is the correlation between altitude and heat?

A

The higher the altitude, the colder it is and more variability

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6
Q

Name one the most variable habitats

A

Antarctic

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7
Q

Describe climate of alpine areas

A

high variability due to altitude

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8
Q

What type of organisms is spatial scale more relevant to?

A

ectotherms because teh spatial scale is much smaller and there are huge differences over very narrow spatial scale

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9
Q

What are ectotherms?

A

an animal that is dependent on external sources of body heat.

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10
Q

What are Milankovitch cycles?

A

Milankovitch cycles describe the collective effects of changes in the Earth’s movements on its climate over thousands of years. Including precessions, tilt on axis and eccentricity.

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11
Q

Describe the greenhouse gas effect

A

warming of the earth’s surface by greenhouse gases that allow solar radiation to reach the surface but delay passage of energy from the earth back to space

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12
Q

Why is solar radiation so important on earth?

A

It powers the climate system

  • about half is absorbed by the earth’s surface and warms it
  • some is reflected back into space
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13
Q

Describe how solar radiation reaches earth

A

short wavelengths

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14
Q

Why do wee need the greenhouse effect?

A

because without it, upward radiation from earth and incoming solar energy would reach a balance of only -18 degrees which is too cold
so this effect keeps teh earth’s temperature warm enough for organisms to survive

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15
Q

Why is a bad thing for greenhouse gas effect to increase?

A

-because a new balance is reached at a higher temperature leading to global warming, greater variability and closer to tolerance limits of certain species or ecosystems

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16
Q

Thermohaline circulation is a knock off effect of global warming. What is the thermohaline circulation?

A

they are deep ocean currents driven by differences in the water’s density controlled by temperature and salinity

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17
Q

Why are ice cores used for historical records of climate change?

A
  • they let us go back a significant amount of time and shows changes in CO2 and temperature
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18
Q

How do you use ice cores to show climate change? (3)

A
  • measure co2 directly from the air bubbles in the ice
  • the isotopic balance gives an idea of temperature
  • the ice encloses a small bubble of air which contain a sample of the atmosphere
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19
Q

What have the Antarctic ice cores shown us? (2)

A

that the concentration of CO2 was stable over the last millennium until early 19th century when it started to rise
- its concentration now is 40% higher than before industrial revolution (due to deforestation ad co2 emission)

20
Q

Why are polar regions the most at risk from an increase in temperature?

A

-only takes a small increase in temperature to tip above 0 which means no freezing, no accumulation of snow and ice which has many knock on effects including ocean currents

21
Q

Describe a cloche

A
  • a mini greenhouse system
  • limited control over extent of warming or other parameters
  • useful in polar or alpine regions with no electricity
22
Q

Name 3 disadvantages of cloches

A
  • prevent colonisation of new species
  • prevent visitation by predators, pollinators etc
  • restricted to short vegetation and associated fauna
23
Q

What are the key effects of climate change on a cloche in Signy Island?

A
  • increase in temp causes increase in development rate and abundance of arthopods
  • they get through life cycle quicker and produce more offspring
  • creating more young animals but no change in biodiversity
24
Q

What are arthopods?

A

invertebrate animals of the large phylum Arthropoda, such as an insect, spider, or crustacean.

25
Q

What were the effects of the cloche in Anvers island?

A
  • UV increase leas to decrease in species
  • temperature lead to decreases in species, linked with more desiccation, habitats drying out
  • water amendment lead to increases in species
26
Q

Describe solar domes

A
  • a way of stimulating climate change
  • a greenhouse with control of CO2, temperature and moisture
  • control over nutrient and water levels
27
Q

Name 3 ways of stimulating climate change in isolated systems

A
  • cloche systems
  • solar domes
  • ecotrons
28
Q

Describe ecotrons and its benefits

A

a series of controlled environmental rooms, bringing ecosytems into the lab

  • allows trophic interactions
  • balance between looking at individual plants and understanding its ecological role
29
Q

What does FACE stand for?

A

Free
Air
CO2
Enrichment

30
Q

Describe how a FACE system works?

A
  • it is a realistic simulation of future CO2 concentration
  • no constraints by enclosures
  • all factors remain normal (not controlled)
31
Q

Name a limitation of FACE

A

Organisms are mobile so are constantly moving in and out of teh system, it is unclear how much time is spent in and how much time is spent out

32
Q

Describe the purpose of BiFor

A

a decadal experiment to study the response of a mature temperate deciduous forest ecosystem to elevated CO2

33
Q

Name the 3 main factors that need to be considered when looking at implications of climate change

A 
physical systems (ice, permafrost, rivers..)
biological systems (terrestrial ecosystems)
Human and managed systems (food production)
34
Q

Name the main abiotic impacts of climate change (4)

A
  • glacial retreat
  • flooding
  • anoxic soil conditions
  • drought
35
Q

Name the main biotic impacts of climate change (4)

A
  • phenological relationships
  • shift in phenology
  • shift in range margins
  • alien/invasive species
36
Q

What are the implications of glacial retreat?

A
  • changes time and extent of meltwater
  • impact on multiple systems dependent on this meltwater
  • flooding
37
Q

Why are anoxic soil conditions an impact of climate change?

A
  • flooded soils can prevent efficient gas exchange between roots and soil,
38
Q

How are anoxic soil conditions problematic?

A

under anaerobic conditions they increase soil PH (more alkaline)

  • impact of microbiota-shift towards species that flourish under anaerobic conditions
  • potential long term impacts on nutrient cycling and soil structure
39
Q

Describe the effect of climate change on seasonal temperatures?

A
  • minimum temperatures have increased more than maximum temperatures
  • winters are milder
  • extended the warm growing season in high latitudes
40
Q

How are droughts caused due to climate change?

A
  • changes in glacial melting times
  • if the burst of meltwater is earlier than expected, later in the year these alpine areas can get dry
  • elevated temperatures in alpine areas leading to drought
41
Q

Name some ‘bioindicators’ of climate change

A
  • Altered phenology (earlier occurrence of spring event e.g. bud burst on trees)
  • northerly migration of species
42
Q

Define synchrony and how climate change will change it

A
  • the simultaneous appearance of 2 separate events

- climate change will lead to a loss of synchrony

43
Q

Whats the difference between multivoltine and univoltine

A 
multivoltine= many life cycles per year
univoltine = one generation per year
44
Q

What is diapause?

A

the period of suspended development in an organism especially during unfavourable environmental conditions.

45
Q

How are alien species an impact of climate change?

A

A non native species arriving and colonising an establishment in an environment they were previously unable to as conditions weren’t favourable but now are able to cope

46
Q

Define alien species

A

a non native species that adversely affects the habitat it invades economically environmentally or ecologically

47
Q

Why is ANtarctica refrain from invasive species?

A
  • because its so isolated by distances and also oceanic currrents that circulate so not as much marine accumulation creating a barrier to things reaching teh continent

Ecological systems and plants sciences - First Year uni (14 decks)

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