S5 - Weather, Climate and Ecosystems (C2)

Question 1

What is weather ?

Answer 1

The atmospheric conditions at a particular place and time - including temperature, precipitation, wind and sunshine.

Question 2

What is climate ?

Answer 2

The average weather over a long period of time (generally 30 years)

Question 3

What is climate change ?

Answer 3

A large-scale long term shift in the Earth’s weather patterns, especially in average temperatures.

Question 4

What is glaciation ?

Answer 4

The process by which land is covered by glaciers.

Question 5

What are glacials ?

Answer 5

Periods of cooler temperatures in earths history - below 15°C

Question 6

What are interglacials ?

Answer 6

Periods of warmth in earths history.

Question 7

What evidence is there of climate changing in the past ?

Answer 7

Fossils found in places where the organism couldn’t live today, ice cores form Antarctica show how carbon dioxide and methane levels have changed over the past 420,000 years, glaciation in places now free of ice, dendrochronology show growing seasons varied in the past, and there are historical records (diary extracts, crop yields and paintings) depict these changes.

Question 8

What is dendrochronology ?

Answer 8

The study of tree rings.

Question 9

What is some recent evidence of climate change ?

Answer 9

Increased CO2 in atmosphere, shifting seasons, melting glaciers/ice sheets, and measurements of an increase in average global temperature by 0.6°C in the last 100 years.

Question 10

What is natural climate change caused by ?

Answer 10

Change sin earths orbit, changes in the earths tilt, changes in output of solar radiation, and volcanic activity.

Question 11

Who is Milutin Milankovitch ?

Answer 11

Serbian astronomer, explained long-term climate change through changes in earths orbit and rotation - milankovitch cycles.

Question 12

What are some milankovitch cycles ?

Answer 12

Earth spins on axis once every 24 hrs, completes wobble on axis once every 26,000 years, the tilt of the axis varies between 22.1° and 24.5° every 41,000 years, and earth has an eccentric orbit around the sun - it completes this eccentricity once every 100,000 years.

Question 13

What are carbon flows ?

Answer 13

The movement of carbon between carbon stores in the carbon cycle.

Question 14

What are carbon stores ?

Answer 14

Short term - carbon is kept or stored in the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere and in the long term - carbon is stored in fossil fuels.

Question 15

What is the carbon cycle ?

Answer 15

Process by which carbon moves from atmosphere to earth and oceans, through various plants and animals, and then back into the atmosphere again.

Question 16

What are some very fast carbon transfers in the carbon cycle ?

Answer 16

Respiration releasing CO2, photosynthesis absorbing CO2, fires, and burning of fossil fuels.

Question 17

What are some fast carbon transfers in the carbon cycle ?

Answer 17

Vegetation decomposed and stored in soil, and absorption and degassing of ocean water.

Question 18

What are some slow and very slow transfers in the carbon cycle ?

Answer 18

Decomposition and transfer of carbon via sediment in oceans.

Question 19

What is the greenhouse effect ?

Answer 19

Natural process that results in the warming of the Earths atmosphere - without it life wouldn’t be possible on earth.

Question 20

P

Answer 20

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