Fragile Environments Flashcards
What is a fragile environment?
An environment vulnerable to change which which struggles to recover from said change, whether naturally or artificially induced
What is an ecosystem?
A system with complex and dependent interactions between living and non-living things
What is a biome?
A collection of similar ecosystems
What is the distribution of tropical rainforests?
- Found very close to the equator, with over 6% of the earth being covered by them
- Specific places include Brazil, Thailand and the DRC
What is the climate of tropical rainforests?
- Very hot (27-30 degrees)
- Wet (2000-3000mm)
- Accomodates more than half of worlds species
What is the distribution of hot deserts?
- 30 degrees north and south of the equator (though not directly on the equator)
- They cover 1/5 of the worlds land
- Specific places include the Saharah desert in Niger, Chad, Libya etc. and the Arabian desert
What is the climate of hot deserts?
- Extreme heat during the day (50 degrees), but very cold in the night (0 degrees)
- Extremely dry (less than 250mm)
What is the distribution of tundra biomes?
- 60-70 degrees north of the equator
- There are very few found south due to the lack of land in this area
- Specific places include Canada and Russia
What is the climate of tundra biomes?
- Extremely long, dark and cold winters (constantly below zero), though warm summers
- Very little rainfall (200mm per year - less than desert) due to low temperatures so little evaporation, but snow and ice provide some ground moisture
- Often little vegetation due to freezing temperatures
How and why does latitude affect temperature?
- The further away from the equator, the colder it is
- This is because the infrared radiation from the rays of the sun are able to hit the equator much more directly and more concentratedly, but as the earth curves away from the equator, the sun rays become more and more diffuse resulting in colder temperatures
What causes the climate of tropical rainforests?
- Very hot as they are located on the equator
- The heat causes all of the moisture on the ground to evaporate
- The air will cool and condense as it rises (low pressure), eventually falling over the rainforest and causing heavy rainfall
The humidity and water orginates from the dense vegetation and their transpiration
What causes the climate of hot deserts?
- The air which rose over the equator is now dry as precipitation has just occured
- It will therefore be blown to either side as part of the Hadley cell, where it falls (high pressure)
- This means that the deserts will be very dry as the descending air contains no moisture, but still hot due to their proximity to the equator
- The lack of vegetation and humidity in the air means very little heat is stored during the day, so nights are very cold
What are the four natural causes of climate change?
- The eruption theory
- The sunspot theory
- The cosmic materials theory
- The orbital theory (Milankovitch theory)
What is the eruption theory?
- Volcanic eruptions produce large amounts of ash and sulphur dioxide, spreading out in the atmosphere and reflecting sunlight
- This reduction can cool temperatures by 0.5-1 degrees
What is the cosmic materials theory?
- Large celestial bodies hit the earth every 50000 years, causing huge amounts of dust to cover the sky
- The ash and dust block sunlight, causing cooler temperatures
What is the sunspot theory?
- The sun’s output fluctuates, evidenced by darker spots present on the sun’s surface indicative of a higher concentration of solar activity
- This area of higher concentration can be directed to earth, causing localised or global temperatue increases overtime
What is the orbital/Milankovitch theory?
- The earth’s orbital patterns change overtime, causing times when the earth was closer to the sun, tilting towards the sun or vice versa
- This can cause changes in the concentration of sun which reaches the earth, causing changes in temperature
What is the difference between global warming and climate change?
- Global warming is the increase in temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, and is caused anthropogenically
- Climate change refers more broadly to long term shifts in global temperatures and weather patterns and can be attributed to both natural of human causes
What are the main greenhouse gases and their sources?
- Carbon dioxide - Burning fossil fuels through industry, energy production and transport, deforestation
- Methane - Decaying organic waste, melting permafrost, cows
- Nitrous oxides - Burning fossil fuels, fertilisers
- CFCs - Aerosols, coolants
Methane has 30x the potency as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide
What are the impacts of rising sea levels?
- Caused by melting glaciers and thermal expansion
- Low lying areas may be flooded - large urban areas
- Greater beach erosion
- Coastal ecosystems such as mangrove swamps may collapse
What are the impacts of more climate-change induced hazards?
- Length and frequency of droughts increases, leading to wildfires
- More tropical cyclones and general storms increase, causing more damage
- When permafrost holding ice together melts, landslides can occur
What are the impacts of climate change on our health and wellbeing?
- Higher temperatures increase rates of heat strokes, causing more deaths
- Diseases can spread more easily through hot, stagnant air and a lack of rainfall
- Places further north are seeing tropical diseases like malaria spreading
- Malnutrition and dehydration from droughts and famines
What are the impacts of climate change on the supply of food?
- Climate conditions may become unsuitable in many regions such as too dry or hot (desertification)
- Many arable areas may be flooded
- Limited water from droughts means less irrigation
- This leads to malnutrition and famine, and food prices surging worldwide
What are the impacts of climate change on settlement patterns?
- Settlements in flooded areas or areas where the conditions have become unbearable will see a drop in population
- Other areas will become flooded by people, seeing overpopulation, unemployment and squatter settlements in these regions
What are the impacts of climate change on employment opportunities?
- Tourism may decline such as in snowy areas leading to job losses
- Farmers in certain areas may lose their jobs
- People in flooded areas will lose their jobs
What are the impacts of climate change on ecosystems?
- Location of biomes may shift north and south
- Ecosystems collapse as species migrate due to unbearable temperatures
- Ocean acidification leads to coral bleaching
What has the UK done to mitigate climate change?
- Signed Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement and set out a net-zero strategy in 2021
- Promoted electric cars and banned diesel cars by 2035
- Investment in heat pumps to replace boilers
- Encouraging walking and cycling, and educating people in schools, encouraging people to insulate and use less energy
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 called for developed countries to reduce carbon emissions
What has the UK done to adapt to climate change?
- Improved their flood defences such as the Thames Barrier
- Increasing defenses against coastal erosion
- Change building design to accomodate for higher temperatures
- Wildfire and heatwave plans
What has the Maldives done to mitigate climate change?
- Become net-zero by using renewable energy sources
- Educated their population about climate change
- Encouraged walking instead of driving etc.
What has the Maldives done to adapt to climate change?
- Floating islands which are high enough to not be affected by sea level
- Soft engineering in the form of building the island upwards
- Sea walls to prevent coastal flooding and erosion
What is desertification?
The gradual loss of water, vegetation and fertility from land leading to the formation of deserts
What are the natural causes of desertification?
- Changing rainfall patterns can cause a lack of water and therefore drought
- Drought can cause soil erosion, which leads to a loss of nutrients in soil
- This, along with a general lack of water leads to lower vegetation cover and fertility
- Any rain that does fall is in short bursts, resulting in a high surface runoff and more soil erosion
A loss of vegetation can lead to less nutrients as less are returned to the soil, reducing fertility
What are the human causes of desertification?
- Overgrazing leading to reduced vegetation cover
- Overcultivation leading to soil erosion and nutrient depletion
- Deforestaiton leading to the loss of stabilising roots and therefore soil erosion
- Population growth and migration puts pressure in certain areas to do the above activities
What are the impacts of desertification?
- Reduced crop growth and biodiversity due to less water, soil erosion, and nutrients in soil being depleted leading to lower agricultural output
- This can lead to widespread malnutrition and famine, poverty for farmers, and increased food prices
- Migration occurs to arable areas, increasing strain on the ecosystem in this area and causing human conflict
What are the different ways in which desertification can be managed
- Farming methods can be changed, for example hydroponics which does not contribute to soil erosion and does not rely on soil quality can be used
- Educating people on suitable farming methods
- Afforestation, such as the Green Wall, which helps to stabilise and increase the nutrients in soil as well as inrease biodiversity to reduce soil erosion
- Methods such as contour stones can be employed which stem the flow of water, increase infiltration and reduce flooding in order to prevent soil erosion
How can water-resource shortages be managed?
- Construction of desalination plants or groundwater pumps
- Using farming methods which do not require as much water, such as vertical farming
- Planting vegetation which is suited to arid environments which require less watering
- Ponding banks can be constructed which are areas of farmland surrounded by dirt walls to help conserve water and improve fertility
What are the causes of deforestation?
- Commercial timber extraction for use in construction and as fuelwood
- Clearance of forests for agriculture
- Clearance of areas surrounding mineral deposits for mining
- Clearance of forests for building roads, which is a result of resource mining and population growth
- Hydroelectric power flooding the areas upstream and causing uprooting and soil erosion as well as the clearance of trees for construction
- Clearance of forests for settlements as a result of an expanding population
- Conflagrations (natural cause) or artificial fires for the clearance of forests
Deforestation is primarily occuring in the rainforests within Brazil, the DRC and Indonesia (Borneo)
What are the environmental impacts of deforestation?
- Soil erosion through loss of soil stability, rain washing it away and a loss of nutrients
- Interception and absorbtion of rainfall decreases leading to land flooding which contributes to soil erosion and sediment build up in rivers - this results in a loss of biodiversity in rivers and further increases the risk of flooding
- Subsequent loss of biodiversity in the area lacking nutrients, especially since agriculture which may replace the forests are monoculture
- Accelerated climate change as burning trees releases carbon dioxide as well how the amount of carbon dioxide absorbtion decreases due to there being fewer trees
What are the social and economic impacts of deforestation?
- Economic development in the countries responsible occurs as jobs are created, natural resources are exported and the agricultural industry proliferates
- Sources of medicine can be lost
- The livelihoods and cultures of indigenous communities are disrupted and broken as crop growth is reduced, flooding is more frequent and they may be displaced
How can deforestation be managed?
- Selective logging can be used to reduce the number of trees cut down while preserving younger trees, and heli-logging can be used to precisely extract logs without causing damage
- HICs can promise to reduce LICs’s debt provided they protect rainforests
- Make sections of rainforests national parks so logging is illegal - these areas can then be used for financial benefit in the form of tourism
- Afforestation (replanting)
- International restrictions on the sale of certain hardwoods can be introduced, and alternative energy sources such as solar/wind can be introduced to reduce the need for fuelwood
- Agroforests can occur where trees are planted alongside crops so allow agriculture and the economic benefit to continue (as fertility is increased) while reducing the number of trees that need to be felled
Be precise with answers and refer to specific countries - it might be a good idea to make up names of initiatives too
