Oceania

Question 1

What is Oceania made of?

Answer 1

Australia
New Zealand
Papuan New Guinea
The Pacific Islands

Question 2

Three pacific island regions

Answer 2

Melanesia
Micronesia
Polynesia

Question 3

Australia was once a part of what continent?

Answer 3

Gondwana

Question 4

Great Barrier Reef

Answer 4

Influences Australia climate by interrupting the westward flowing ocean currents in the mid-south pacific circulation pattern.

Question 5

Typical landforms

Answer 5

Flat

Wind wears down most landforms

Question 6

Volcanic Islands

Answer 6

High islands are usually volcanoes that rise above into mountains and rocky formations.
An atoll is a low-laying island or chain of islands formed of coral reefs that build up in a circular or oval rim of a submerged volcano.

Question 7

Climate

Answer 7

The slightly warm water temperatures of the central pacific bring mild climates year round to nearly all inhabited parts of the region.
Seasonal variations in temperature are greatest in the southernmost regions of Australia and New Zealand.

Question 8

Moisture and Rainfall

Answer 8

Much of Oceania is warm and humid nearly all the time.
New Zealand and the High Islands of the Pacific receive copious amounts of rainfall; before human settlement, they supported dense forest vegetation.
Roaring Forties; named the 40th parallel south are powerful air and ocean currents that speed around the far Southern Hemisphere free from land masses.

Question 9

Roaring Forties

Answer 9

Named the 40th parallel south are powerful air and ocean currents that speed around the far Southern Hemisphere free from land masses.

Question 10

Orographic Rainfall

Answer 10

Produced when moist air is lifted as it moves over a mountain range. As the air rises and cools, orographic clouds form and serve as the source of the precipitation. Most of which falls upwind of the mountain range.

Question 11

Australian Climate

Answer 11

2/3 of Australia is overwhelmingly dry. The dominant winds affecting Aus blow east to west that converge east of the continent.
Only has one major river system which is in the temperate SE where most of Aus lives

Question 12

Fauna and Flora

Answer 12

Oceania is compromised of a isolated continent and numerous islands. This affects its animal life (fauna) and plant life (flora)
Many species are endemic

Question 13

Global Climate Change

Answer 13

Oceania with the exception of Australia is a minor contributor of greenhouse gases. Australia has some of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita basis.
If seas levels rise 4 inches per decade as predicted by the international panel on climate change, many of the low lying pacific atolls such as Tuvalu will disappear underwater within 50 years.

Question 14

Response to climate change crisis

Answer 14

Australia remains dependant on fossil fuel sales (primarily coal, but also crude oil as natural gas) to Asia, but it pursuing renewable energy strategies for use at home.
New Zealand has set a goal of obtaining 95% of its energy from renewable resources by 2025.

Question 15

2015 Paris Agreement

Answer 15

Brought all nations into a common cause based on their historic, current, and future responsibilities. The universal agreement main aim is to keep a global temperature rise the century below 2 degrees and to limit temp increase even more 1.5 degrees

Question 16

Climate change negotiation

• Cook Islands
• Australia

Answer 16

Cook Islands; high vulnerability, future is the biggest concern, risk to subsidence

Australia; low vulnerability, present is biggest concern, risks to wealth

Question 17

Environments issues

Answer 17

Invasive species
Many unique endemic plants and animals of Oceania have been displaced by invasive species. Organisms that spread into regions outside their natural range, affecting economies and environments.
European rabbits are the most destructive of the introduced species. Early British settlers who enjoyed rabbits brought them to Aus.

Question 18

Human impacts on biosphere

Answer 18

-Fishing
-Nuclear weapon testing; the geopolitical aspects of globalization have hit Oceania especially hard. Weapon testing by France and the US from 1940s and 60s (cold war) as well as accepting nuclear waste from various nuclear powers, have become major environmental issues for the Pacific Islands.
-plastic pollution;
-tourism; foreign owned enterprises have often accelerated the loss of wetlands and worsened beach erosion by clearing coastal vegetation for hotel construction, golf courses, and water front related entertainment.
Also strained island water sources because of showering, laundering, and other services consuming fresh water.

Question 19

Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument

Answer 19

US made island areas no fishing zones

Question 20

UN Convention of the Law of the Sea- UNCLOS (1994)

Answer 20

The world oceans are connected so the problems are interrelated
Ratified by 167 countries plus the EU (not the USA)
Treaty allows countries to claim rights to ocean resources out to 200 mile limit (EEZ’s - exclusive economic zones)
Defines boundaries if international waters.