Primates and Climate Change Flashcards
What is climate change?
- Climate change is a global **long term shift **in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local , regional , and global climates
- Natural weather pattern changes
What is a climate change a result of ? What historic event is tied to climate change?
- Result of natural or human induced changes to land-use , solar radition , or atmospheric gas concetrations (greenhouse gases)
- Since the 1800s , human activities have been the main driver of climate change , primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas
- Highly tied to industrial revolution in 1700s
What are the causes of climate change ?
“R.E.A.D. To Restock Cow Lilac Pools”
- Rapid industrialization
- Energy Use
- Agricultural Practices
- Deforestation
- Transport
- Resource extraction
- Consumer practices
- Livestock
- Pollution
What are the effects of climate change? Double R, UI, Double L (RRUILL)
- Rising temperatures
- Rising sea levels
- Unpredictable weather patterns (ex: drought and flooding )
- Increase in extreme weather events
- Land degradation
- Loss of biodiversity
What is global warming?
Global warming : the long term heating of Earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
What is the difference between Global Warming and Climate change? Are they interchangeable?
- Compared to climate change -global warming is ONLY CAUSED by human activities
- The term is** NOT INTERCHANGEABLE **with the term “climate change”
What is the difference between Weather and Climate?
- Different spatial and temporal scale
- Weather : atmospheric condtions that occur locally over short periods of time - from minutes to hours or days
-Ex: local weather and daily forecast
-Ex 2: rain, snow , clouds , winds , floods or thunderstorms - Climate : long term (usually at least 30 years ) regional or even global average of temperature , humidity , and rainfall patterns over seasons, years or decades.
What is global warming?
- Slide definition : Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the “greenhouse effect” - warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from earth toward space
- Simplified - Global warming trend has occured since the industrial revolution. Some ray emissions from the sun go into the atmosphere of the Earth and some do not. Some ray emissions stay inside the atmosphere due to carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas).
What effect increases that causes global warming?
- Increase of greenhouse effect gases will
- trap heat on earth
- do not allow heat to dissipate from earth
- this is what causes greenhouse effects
What are the 4 greenhouse gases?
- Carbon dioxide
- Methane
- Nitrus oxide
- Chlorofluorocarbons
Explain where the 4 greenhouse gases come from
- Carbon dioxide: burning fossil fuels and deforestation (fire), etc
- Methane : Landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities (livestock and rice farming ), etc.
- Nitrus oxide : commerical and organic fertilizer production and use, burning fossil fuels and burning vegetation
- Chlorofluorocarbons (entirely of industrial origin) : manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as solventsm and as refrigerants
How’s global warming changing climate processes? (7 reasons)
- More extreme stroms
- Heat waves
- Droughts
- Regional temperature and precipitation patterns
- Shifting vegetation zones
- Melting glaciers
- sea level rise
What are the two main factors affecting the current climate situation?
- Caused by human-induced effects
- Increasing carbom dioxide emissions with fewer forests to deal with the increase
Climate change and deforestation - How are these processes related?
- Forests and tress store carbon
- When they are degraded or completely cleared ,e.g. by fire, the stored carbons has the potential to be released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and contribute to climate change
What are the 4 stages between forests and carbon dioxide?
- Intact forest ecosystems : capture carbon in vegetation and soil.
- Clearing and burning forests : releases carbon that had been stored in vegetation and soil
- Conversion: to pasture , agriculture , and urban areas produces ongoing emissions
- Regrowing forests : capture and accumulate carbon slowly over decades
Why are intact forests better than deforestation ?
Natural forests capture carbon dioxide.
Deforestation releases carbon dioxide.
Is reforestation enough when deforestation occurs?
- NO!
- Avoiding deforestation is better for the climate than reforestation
- There are immediate carbon emissions from deforestation (165 tons carbon/hectare)
- Whereas reforestation will gradually capture carbon and accumulate (2-5 tons carbon/hectare/year)
How does climate change impact primates?
- Habitat : which involves food, range, loss and fragmentation
- Physiological
- Disease
What are the 5 reasons climate change impacts vegetation?
- in some areas- increased precipitation and warmth may lead to improved plant growth
- Marked changes in phenology (timing of naturally recurring events e.g. flowering, fruiting , hibernation, migration)
- Fruiting patterns ex : many tree species in Lope, Gabon can only produce seeds when the temperature falls below 19 degrees celsius - Impacts leaf quality
- Driving changes on species dependent on these plants
- Increased temperatures may lead to plant stress, rapid loss and desertification
Chapman et al, 2005 did a study called “ A longterm evaluation of fruiting phenology : importance of climate change”. What were the results from the Kibale national park case study?
- Since 1903 Kibale is wetter , droughts less frequent and mean monthly maximum temp, has increased
- 12 years of phenology data:
- high temporal variability in ripe fruit variability
- Dramatic inter-annual variation in ripe fruit
- over time , more fruit has become available - but not for all species
What are the 6 reasons climate change impacts range shifts and animal distribution ?
- Changes to the climatic zones appropriate for plant species
- Species moving higher in latitude or altitude -but may not be able to move fast enough.
- There might be natural or human barriers (e.g. “grass ceiling” in the Peruvian highlands)
- Polar animals expected to be the most quickly and severely affected
- In other areas, animal adaptations will depend on changes to their food suplies
- may need to migrate up in altitude and latitude -which may not be possible
- May lose their resource base altogether
What could the current climate changes do to gelada populations?
- Dunbar (1998)- the lower altitudinal limit for geladas predicted to move upward.
- 500 m for every 2 degrees celcius in gloabl temp
- translates into a half of the land surface avaiable to geladas for each temp rise
- By 7 degrees celsius rise, gelada will only be found in isolated montane islands
What are the two physiological effects of climate change on primates? Explain each
- Metabolic rate
-small bodied
-high metabolic rates - more susceptible to warming temperatures - Hibernation and torpor
-may buffer species from the impacts of increased temperature
-alternatively could impact the availability /quality of required hibernation locations (tree holes)
How does climate change impact disease? What were the results of the study done by Nunn et al (2005)?
- Many pathogens are more likely to develop, survive, and spread under warmer and wetter conditions
- Geographical distribution and prevalence of these diseases expected to increase with climate change
- Nunn et al (2005)- vector-borne parasites (e.g., malaria , leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, etc) show a highly significant latitudinal gradient in species richness .
-**Greater abundnance where it is warmer and ther are more biting anthropods **