Climate Change Flashcards
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather: conditions of atmosphere over short time periods.
Climate: average of weather conditions over long time period.
Preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth’s history.
Climate proxies.
Proxy data consists of two elements. Define both.
Span: range of time for which data from a given type of proxy exists.
Resolution: how much detail is to be found in a given type of proxy data.
What is palynology?
Study of pollen.
What are two ways we can know past temperatures?
Ice cores; sediment cores.
Lighter water _____ preferentially. Heavy water _____ preferentially.
Evaporates.
Precipitates.
What are the climate and sea level proxies for the Eocene (~55Ma)?
Marine sediments.
Describe the greenhouse effect.
Ultraviolet (UV) energy absorbed by the Earth’s surface; at night, radiated as infrared (IR) energy. IR prevented from leaving the atmosphere by certain gasses.
Which two gasses contribute most to the greenhouse effect?
Carbon dioxide; methane.
What is albedo?
Measure of how much light that hits surface is reflected without being absorbed.
How is carbon stored? What is the process for it?
Photosynthesis.
Water + Carbon Dioxide + Nutrients + Sunlight ➔ Oxygen + Organic material.
How is carbon released back into the atmosphere?
Decomposition.
Between 2007-2017 the ocean absorbed what?
25% of anthropogenic CO2.
Increased CO2 decreases what? Why is this important?
pH.
Warm water holds less gas.
Increased CO2 in the ocean = increased _____.
Acidification.