Ecologly Flashcards
What is weather? Examples?
Atmospheric conditions of a specific place at a specific time
Ex. Rain,sun,wind,snow,cloud,coverage
What is climate? Examples?
Average weather condition In a region over a period of several years (at least 30)
Ex. Vancouver has a rainy climate, Mexico has a hot climate
What is anecdotal evidence ?
Things we see/experiment
Ex: it felt colder this year then last year
What is scientific evidence?
Facts/data using numbers and measures
Ex average temperature of Jan 2023 was 2.3 colder than Jan 2021
What is narrow climate?
Doesn’t vary much
Ex: Mexico is always hot
What is wide climate?
Varies a lot
Ex: Edmonton can be -40 to +40
What is moderate climate?
Mild, not too hot or cold
Ex: Vancouver
What is severe climate?
Extremes; hot or cold
Ex: Greenland
What is atmosphere?
All the air
What is hydrosphere?
All the water
What is lithosphere?
All the land
What is the biosphere?
The narrow zone around earth that can support life
What is biotic?
Living things
Ex: plants, animals, bacteria
What is abiotic?
Non living things
Ex: rocks, water, sunlight
What order is the atmosphere from closest to earth to farthest
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
What is inversion?
A reversal of the temperature change with altitude
What does the stratosphere contain?
The ozone layer (O2 converted to O3, exothermic, why temperature increases
What does the troposphere contain?
80% of the atmosphere gases, most living organisms
What is the source of all energy on earth?
The sun
What are gamma rays used in?
Chemotherapy to kill cancer cells
What are Ultraviolet rays absorbed by?
The skin, why we need sunscreen
What is visible light?
What we can see; each colour had a different wave length
What does infrared heat do?
Transmits heat
What is insolation?
The amount of energy that is actually received by the earth surfaces
What is the earths tilt?
The angle of inclination
What is the angle of inclination?
23.5
What is solstice?
One of two points in earth orbit where the poles are pointed most towards or away from the sun
What is equinox?
The 2 days where the number of daylight hours is exactly equal to the number of nighttime hours
The earths ____ is an imaginary line between the ______________. This is the line the earth rotates around.
Axis
North and south poles
Why is the angle of inclination important?
It’s the reason we have seasons
For the north hemisphere what is the longest and shortest solstice?
June solstice is longest
December solstice is shortest
For the south hemisphere what solstice is the shortest and longest?
June solstice is the shortest
December solstice is the longest
What is it called when there is two days that have equal amount hours of daylight and of nighttime
September and march equinox
In the north hemisphere what seasons go with the September and march equonix in?
Fall goes with September and spring goes with march
In the south hemisphere what seasons go with the September and march equonix?
Spring goes with September
and fall goes with march
For the September and march equinox where is the equator facing?
Directly faces the sun
In the northern hemisphere how is the earth tilted during June solstice?
Towards the sun
In the northern hemisphere how is the earth tilted during December solstice?
Away from the sun
In the south hemisphere how is the earth tilted during June solstice?
Away from the sun
In the south hemisphere how is the earth tilted during December solstice?
Towards the sun
Earth is split into different ________
Latitudes
What are the latitudes of the equator and the poles?
Equator = O
Poles = 90
What happens when a ray hits the earth straight on?
It only hits a smaller area, energy is not spread out
What happens when a ray hits the earth on a rounded part?
Energy is spread out over a larger area
What does the same amount of energy over a larger area mean?
Each point in that area received less energy compared to areas where the ray is straight on
Less energy = _______
Colder
For the areas 1-5, state the relative area the ray is covering and how it affects the climate
3: small area-more energy throughout, hotter climate
2 & 4: medium area -less energy than 3 but more the 1/5, mild
1 & 5: largest area- less energy throughout, colder
What is the angle of incidence ?
The angle between the suns ray and the surface of the earth
What’s the difference between a smaller angle and bigger angle?
Smaller angle= less direct sunlight, colder
Bigger angle= more direct sunlight, hotter
What is in the Atmosphere?
Cloud coverage and atmospheric dust - blocks light from getting through
The gases in the atmosphere; different gases absorb/reflect different amounts of sunlight
Define albedo:
The percent of solar radiation that a material reflects
Different __________ in the lithosphere and hydrosphere have different _______.
Materials, albedos
What is the average albedo for earths surface?
About 30%
What is asphalt brightness, albedo and temperature?
Not bright=not reflecting much, low albedo (5-10%).
Absorbing the other 90-95%, so it’s hot
What is waters brightness, albedo and temperature?
Depends on where the sun is. Can be anywhere from 10-60% and therefore ranges from cold to warm
What is snow’s brightness, albedo and temperature?
Very bright since it’s reflecting lots of light, high albedo (80-95%).
Absorbing only the remaining 5-20%, so it’s cold
What are the 4 aspects of the green house effect?
- Solar energy from the sun passes through the atmosphere
- Some of the energy is reflected back out to space
- Earths surface is heated by the solar energy then radiated through heat back out towards space
- Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap some of the heat, keeping it near earths surface
What is natural greenhouse effect cause by?
Water vapour
What are the 4 elements related to the green house effect?
Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour, nitrous oxide
What is the artificial green house effect caused by?
Carbon dioxide
What is incoming radiation?
Solar energy that makes it to the surface if earth (isn’t reflected back to space by the atmosphere)
What is outgoing radiation?
Thermal energy that the earths surface re-emits back out into space (not including what gets trapped in the atmosphere)
What is the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
Heat always moves from hot to cold
What the insolation, albedo, incoming and outgoing radiation like in polar regions?
Low insolation=less incoming radiation
High albedo=more outgoing radiation
Is heat deficit part of polar regions or equator regions?
Polar regions
Is heat surplus part of polar regions or equator regions?
Equator regions
What’s the insolation, albedo, incoming and outgoing radiation like in the equator regions?
High insolation=more incoming radiation
Low albedo = less outgoing radiation
Explain incoming radiation - outgoing radiation
The amount of radiation going in and the amount going out
What are three 3 types of thermal energy transfer
- Radiation
- Conduction
- Convection
What is radiation and what does it occur in?
Occurs in gases, a vacuum
Emission of energy as particles and waves, these waves can be absorbed by other objects, and the particles of that object will warm up/get more energy
What is conduction and what does it occur in?
Occurs in solids
A particle near a heat source gains energy and starts vibrating more
Because the particle in solids are closely packed, this vibrating particle bumps into its neighbour, transferring the energy to them
Eventually all the particle get bumped into and gain the energy
What is convection and what does it occur in?
Occurs in fluids(liquids/gases)
A particle near a heat source gains energy and starts moving more
Since there’s more space between particles in fluids, these energized particles are able to move away from the heat source
Colder( higher density) particles move down into the new space and now they are near the heat source and can gain energy
What is atmospheric pressure?
The pressure exerted by a column of air over any given point
What does the difference in air pressure and temperature create?
Convection currents in the atmosphere
Colder air exerts ____ pressure than warm air, since it is ____ ______
More
More dense
What is the movement of air from regions of higher pressure to regions of low pressure?
Wind
What is the Coriolis effect?
The bending of moving currents in response to earths rotation
What is the direction of travel when fired northward?
Clockwise
What is the direction of travel when fired southward?
Counter clockwise
The Coriolis effect causes winds in the two hemispheres to move in ______ directions
Opposite
What do convection currents and the Coriolis effect cause?
Global wind patterns
What are jet streams?
A “river” of fast flowing are in the stratosphere
How strong are the jet streams of wind and how many km wide and long are they
480-640km/h strong
Typically thousands of km long
Hundreds of km wide
What do changes in jet streams help predict?
Severe weather
What is specific heat capacity?
The splint of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1 degrees celcuis
What is quantity of thermal energy?
The amount of thermal energy released by 1 gram of a substance when its temperature changes by 1 degrees Celsius
What happens to a substance when you add energy?
It gets hotter
At two specific temperatures, what will that energy go towards instead?
A phase change
What are biomes?
Geographical areas with a specific climate that the plants & animals that live there are adapted to
Are biomes opened or closed systems, why?
Open, energy (the sun) enters and matter is able to go in and out
What are climatographs?
A graph that shows us the average temperature and precipitation of location over a year
What’s average precipitation plotted as? What’s it measured in?
Always plotted as a BAR GRAPH (raindrops collected in a bucket)
Measured in mm
What’s average temperature plotted as? What’s it measured in?
Always plotted as a LINE GRAPH
Measured in degrees Celsius
In order to compare two areas, the climatographs must have the same ________
Scales on the vertical axes
What’s the taiga also known as?
The boreal forest
What are the factors affecting climate?
Insolation
Global winds
Ocean currents
Explain insolation and provide an example
Most related to latitudes, has the biggest effect on climates
Areas near the equator get a lot of direct sunlight so there climate is hotter
Explain global winds and provide an example
Patterns can determine short term weather and long term patterns
Chicago is called “the Windy City”
Explain ocean currents and provide an example
Have a moderating effect
Vancouver has a warmer climate then Edmonton despite being at similar latitudes
What are the 3 main gases contributing to the artificial greenhouse effect
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide
How do we measure how dangerous a gas is to the greenhouse effect?
Global warming potential (GWP)
What is global warming potential (GWP) ?
As measure of the relative ability to trap thermal energy in the atmosphere
What is used as the reference point that the other gases are compared to
CO2 (g)
What is persistance?
How many years a gas will remain in the atmosphere
What the GWP and persistence of carbon dioxide?
GWP: 1
Persistence: 50-200 years
What the GWP and persistence of methane?
GWP: 23
Persistence: 10
What the GWP and persistence of nitrous oxide?
GWP: 296
Persistence: 120
What is another class of man made chemicals that can trap thermal energy in the atmosphere?
Halocarbons
What are halocarbons GWP?
About 12 000
Define carbon source:
Processes that release carbon into the atmosphere
Define carbon sink:
Processes that remove carbon from the atmosphere
What are fossil fuels formed from? What do they contain a lot of?
The remains of living organic matter
Carbon
What are examples of a carbon sink
Oceans and forests(due to photosynthesis)
