Lecture #7 (Climate Change) Flashcards
What is climate based on?
Meteorological variables such as temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, and precipitation
How is climate different from weather?
Climate is the long-term average of weather for a place (usually over 30 years) and weather is a short-term (days to weeks) patterns in meteorological variables
How long is climate typically averaged overed?
30 years
The _____ of a location is affected by latitude, attitude, terrain, land use, & nearby water bodies and currents
climate
What is paleoclimatology?
The study of ancient climates often inferred through proxies (tree rings, ice cores).
What is the purpose of a Stevenson screen?
To shield thermometers from precipitation and from direct radiation from outside sources while allowing air to circulate freely round them
Climate variables are summarized as either ____(1), _____ (4), or _____ values (12) per variable.
annual; seasonal; monthly
What are derived climate variables?
When different climate variables are used to derive a new variable that gets combined in certain ways (ex. indices of moisture availability)
What are Bioclimatic variables?
Variables that include both the most relevant annual, seasonal variables, and a set of derived (ex. moisture availability and continentality)
What does MWMT and MCMT stand for?
Mean Warmest Month Temperature; Mean Coldest Month Temperature
Climatic Moisture Index (CMI) correlates with ___________, which itself is complicated to calculate.
evapotranspiration
Outside of equatorial areas weather patterns are driven mostly by what?
Ocean currents (they act like conveyer belts)
How does ocean currents drive/push ocean currents?
Transport warm water (heat) & moisture from the equator towards the poles & cold water from the poles towards the tropics
Without ocean currents what would happen to temperatures?
They would be even more extreme
_____ store solar radiation, distribute heat & moisture around the globe & drive weather systems
Oceans
What is the temperature range of Oceans?
-2C to 30C
According to the Koppen Climate Classification, what are tropical (megathermal) climates?
Climates that have constant warm temperatures (lowest monthly temp is >18C)
According to the Koppen Climate Classification, what are dry (arid) climates?
Climates that have low precipitation (annual precipitation <50% of evaporation-related threshold)
According to the Koppen Climate Classification, what are Continental (microthermal) climates?
Climates that have hot summers & cold winters (often interior of a continent)
According to the Koppen Climate Classification, what are Polar or Alpine climates?
Climates that have consistently cold temperatures throughout the year (avg. temp. of warmest month <10C)
What two factors does the Koppen climate classification use?
Temperature & Precipitation
What kind of climate does Edmonton have?
Continental climate without a dry season & warm summers (Dfb)
D: continental
f: without dry season
b: warm summer
What are Hardiness Zones?
A geographic area that encompasses a range of climatic conditions relevant to a plant’s growth and survival
Using Canada’s plant hardiness zone system, what is Edmonton’s zone? And what is the majority of the rest of Alberta?
4a; 2 or 3
What is the concept behind Hardiness Zones? (i.e. how do they determine Hardiness Zones?)
Use average minimum (winter) temperature for a place (divided into 10F zones & then sub-zones at 5F increments) then use your zone to determine if you can plant the species or variety in your location.
What is a microclimate?
A local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas
What are some examples of microclimates?
Climate near bodies of water (cool the local temp), terrain (slope-aspect), in forests vs. openings (vegetation, even to the level of individual plants), or dense urban areas
Within dense urban areas where concrete and asphalt absorb the sun’s energy an ‘___________’ effect is created
urban heat island
Climate models are at a micro or macro scale?
Macro
What is biota?
A term referring to climate refugia
What is buffering?
A dampening of fluctuations in T-micro (i.g. under forest canopy)
What is buffering?
A dampening of fluctuations in T-micro (e.g., under forest canopy)
What is decoupling?
When T-micro behaves independently from T-macro (e.g., temperatures inside snow during winter are decoupled from above the snow layer)
The Alpine wooly lousewort (think of the experiment testing the temp. of the plant with and without the wool) is a __________.
micro-greenhouse
In a tropical forest, the _____ has wider extremes (colder @ night/winter, hotter in day/summer)
T-macro
What is cold air drainage also known as?
Frost pockets
In a frost pocket (the one in the slides) how many times did it frost over 24 hrs.
16
What are some examples of terrain-related microclimates?
Cold air drainages (frost pockets) and slope-aspect relationships
What are some aspects of frost pockets?
Failure to grow trees including plantings (zonation of veg is affected) & frosts in glacial kettle every night with high pressure systems (clear skies and low humidity)
What is meant by a slope-aspect relationship?
Angle/tilt of the Earth effects the angle at which solar radiation reaches the ground - latitude also has a large impact on this
The terrain can substantially ___ local climates and thus vegetation (ecosystems).
alter
What other types of bodies of water can result in local microclimates to adjacent land?
Large, deep lakes
Large lakes at mid-latitudes with open water in winter can cause ____ ____ on adjacent land.
snow belts
On average the world’s climate over deep time (mainly the Phanerozoic Eon) was ______ without polar ice caps
hotter
On average the world’s climate over deep time (mainly the Phanerozoic Eon) was _____ with polar ice caps
colder
The first major polar ice caps formed about how many years ago?
350 million
Who was Gaia (or Gaea) in Greek mythology?
The ancient Greek goddess of Earth (ancestral mother of all life)
