Lecture 24: Synthesis and Climate Change

Question 1

How is climate change affecting hadley cells?

Answer 1

They are getting stronger and larger which pushes desert belts polewards

Question 2

What happens to organisms as the climate changes?

Answer 2

• they can acclimate (phenotypic plasticity)
• they can adapt (adaptation)
• they can migrate to suitable conditions (range shift)
• go extinct

Question 3

To what extent can acclimation help organisms?

Answer 3

Early or gradual exposure to environmental stress can reduce negative impacts but its easier for organisms to acclimate to cold than warmth (at least for porcelain crabs)

Question 4

Species are moving polewards at a rate of…

Answer 4

16.9 km per decade (also moving up mountains)

Question 5

Pikas in The Great Basin

Answer 5

Great Basin is an area with many small mountain ranges (green sky islands in desert matrix). Pikas are going locally extinct as they move up mountains

Question 6

coextinctions

Answer 6

loss of species results in the loss of another species that depended on the other (more likely in specialized relationships)

Question 7

Assisted migration

Answer 7

we physically move the animals to a new environment

Question 8

How do CO2 emissions increase global temp?

Answer 8

Short wavelengths of light enter atmosphere, the light is absorbed by the surface and warms, the warm surface emits infrared radiation which is absorbed by the atmosphere and converted to heat (more CO2 means more of this heat is trapped).