Earth System Flashcards
What are the main components of the Earth system?
Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Biosphere
Geopshere
Anthrosphere
materials move through these reservoires at different rates
What are the components of the atmosphere ?
Troposphere
Stratosphere
Mesophere
Thermosphere
Exosphere
What percentage of gases make up the atmosphere?
Nirogen = 78%
Oxygen = 21%
Trace gases e.g. argon and GHGs = 1%
What is the biosphere?
Heirarchial sturcture known as the food chian - all life depends on primary producers
Energy travels from one level of the food chain to the next
What makes up the hydrosphere?
Water vapour and clouds
Frozen water - cryosphere
97% of water is salt and 3% is fresh
What makes up the geosphere?
Continental and oceanic crust including interior Earth layers
Outermost part is the lithosphere
What is the anthrosphere?
Human component of the Earth system and its intercations with the environment
Is Earth an open or closed system?
It is a nearly closed system
What are the implications of a closed system?
Finite resources
Zero waste principle
Interconnected impacts - changing a part of the system has a ripple effect on other components
How do we study complex systems?
1) Identify system components and their interactions
2) Determine the residence time
3) Identify the feedback loops
What is the equation of residence time?
Residence time = amount in the reservoir/total sources OR sinks
What is a reservoir?
Also known as pools/stores/stocks
The amount of material of interest in a given form
What does flux mean?
Amount of material added to (soruce) or removed from (sink) to a reservoir in a period of time
What is steady-state?
Sources = sinks
What is residence time?
The time taken to empty or fill a reserovir
