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Environmental Studies > Test #1 > Flashcards

Test #1 Flashcards

1
Q

Earth’s climate includes interactions of these 5 subsystems

A

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Cryosphere, and Geosphere

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2
Q

What is the possibility percentage that recent climate change is due to humans?

A

97%

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3
Q

Are ecosystems able to adjust to this recent climate change?

A

Changes are happening too fast so no

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4
Q

Difference between Weather and Climate?

A

Weather is something we can see right now and measure.
Climate is trends of weather over a period of time ie. a decade

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5
Q

What 3 things do Earth’s temperature depend on?

A
  1. Amount of sunlight received
  2. Amount of sunlight reflected
  3. Degree to which the atmosphere retains heat
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6
Q

What is greenhouse effect?

A

Atmospheric gases act as the glass in a greenhouse: sunlight comes in through it but traps it inside making the earth warm up.

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7
Q

Is the greenhouse effect natural?

A

Yes, it is a necessary process; without it Earth would be warmer, surface water would be frozen, little life would be able to exist, natural effect is from water vapor

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8
Q

Gases involved in the absorption during greenhouse effect?

A

Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, CFCs, and ozone

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9
Q

Difference between permanent gas and variable gas?

A

Permanent Gas is stable and takes thousands of years before it begins to change
Ex. Nitrogen and oxygen
Variable gas changes daily/yearly and is measurable
Ex. Carbon Dioxide, water vapor, methane.

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10
Q

Where does most oxygen come from? Why?

A

Most oxygen comes from water due to plants, algae, and cyanobacteria in the ocean all create oxygen. They do this through photosynthesis. Using energy from sunlight, they turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen

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11
Q

How can Carbon Dioxide be produced/released into the Atmosphere?

A

Can be naturally produced through volcanic activity, plant and animal respiration, wildfires, and decay of organic material.
The increase of the burning of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution by people

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12
Q

What is the primary component of natural gas? How is it produced?

A

Methane.
Occurs naturally from bacterial decay, intestinal tracks of termites, cows, and sheep
Man-made sources- coal mines, oil wells, leaking natural gas pipelines, rice cultivation, landfills, and livestock

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13
Q

Where is Ozone found in the Earth’s sub-systems?

A

Mostly found in stratosphere (layer in the atmosphere)

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14
Q

What acts as a shield for ultraviolet light and is essential to life on Earth?

A

Ozone layer

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15
Q

What did CFCs partially destroy and were some of the effects?

A

CFCs partially destroyed the ozone shield which caused an increase in skin cancer, cataracts, and caused local crop failures

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16
Q

What are aerosols? What are the sources both natural and anthropogenic?

A

Aerosols are tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in air or as a gas ex. fog, clouds, etc.
Natural Sources- Desert dust, wildfires, sea spray, and volcanoes
Man-Made- Burning of forests and fossil fuels

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17
Q

What is paleoclimatology?

A

The analysis of proxy data in order to reconstruct past climates

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18
Q

What is proxy data and give examples?

A

Indirect evidence using natural recorders of climate variability.
Ex. seafloor sediments, coral deposits, glacial ice rings, tree tings, pollen, and historical documents

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19
Q

What do tree rings tell us?

A

They can tell us what years were good for growing and what years were bad for growing. We can use trees to record data thousands of years back

20
Q

What do sediments tell us?

A

Tells a lot information due to it being barely touched/tampered with. Compacts together creating limestone and shows the direction of current and fossils.

21
Q

What do Ice Cores tell us?

A

Obtained by drilling into the ice and any small bubbles contained in the ice show the time of snow. The composition of this air bubble can be studied for past atmospheric gases.

22
Q

What do Coral Deposits tell us?

A

Similar to tree rings, can be used to determine the age of the coral skeleton. Variations in the chemical composition of the skeleton can show seawater temperature, salinity, and pH as the coral grows. Very sensitive so great way to tell what is happening in the world.

23
Q

What does pollen tell us?

A

Pollen can be found in many environments and the types of pollen found can reflect that climate. Preserved in sediment layers that can be independently dated and contain past atmospheric gases that can be studied now.

24
Q

What classifies as a historical document and what does it tell us?

A

Books, newspapers, personal journals, ship logs, crop records.
Shows temperature and precipitation dated to the late17th century.

25
Q

Is there a correlation between solar activity and average Earth temperature?

A

There is a lack of correlation, though solar energy changes it isn’t a big contributor.

26
Q

What are Milankovitch Theories?

A
  1. Eccentricity of Earth’s orbit
  2. Obliquity angle of Earth’s axis
  3. Precession wobble of axis
27
Q

What is the eccentricity of the Earth?

A

Eccentricity measures how much the shape of Earth’s orbit departs from a perfect circle.

28
Q

What is the obliquity of the Earth?

A

Obliquity is the angle of tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation around the sun.

29
Q

What is the precession of the Earth?

A

The slow, conical motion of the earth’s axis of rotation, caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon

30
Q

Which of Milankovitch theories cause the greatest impact on season lengths and instensity?

A

Obliquity- angle of earth to the sun
Precession- wobble of earth to the sun
Together they determine the length of seasons and the intensity of the temperature.

31
Q

What effect does volcano eruptions have on the atmosphere?

A

The ash from the eruptions becomes stuck in the atmosphere and reflects the sunlight creating a cooling effect on Earth

32
Q

What is the ocean conveyor belt?

A

It is the circulation of ocean water in oceans. Can cause fast changes in climate. Warmer water fuels hurricanes.

33
Q

Have hurricanes increased in numbers or severity?

A

Severity increased in hurricanes, we are now seeing more category 4 and 5.

34
Q

What are the 3 changes we are seeing in climate patterns?

A
  1. Temperature and precipitation patterns
  2. Increase in frequency or intensity of violent storms
  3. Change in the frequency and strength of El Nino and La Nina events
35
Q

What is El Nino?

A

Occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. We know this
WARM

36
Q

What is La Nina?

A

Opposite El Nino. The periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific.
COLD

37
Q

4 main contributors to rising sea levels?

A
  1. Melting of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets
  2. Thermal expansion of ocean surface waters
  3. Melting of land glaciers and ice caps
  4. Thermal expansion of deep ocean waters
38
Q

What is Arctic amplification?

A

The Arctic is warming twice to three times as fast as the rest of the planet due to sea ice loss
Loss of ice = enhanced warming due to lower albedo

39
Q

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was approximately 280 ppm in 1750. What is the ppm today and what is the expected ppm going to be in 2050?

A

Today the concentration is 413 ppm.
By 2050 it’s expected to reach 460 ppm.

40
Q

What are the hazards of climate change associated with desertification?

A

Human-induced degradation of productive land
Preceded and accompanied by loss of vegetation and soil erosion
Land may lose productiveness and not recover for decades or centuries

41
Q

What are the hazards of climate change associated with drought?

A

Could increase in length and severity
Areas that become drier and warmer will have more droughts
Drought in Canada could be exacerbated by a reduction in the amount of snow and glacier ice
* Will have an effect on summer streamflow in many areas

42
Q

What is the Montreal Protocol?

A

1987 agreement to limit the depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs
CFCs have declined since the protocol was implemented

43
Q

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

A

1997 agreement from the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change
Establishes targets for nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012
Canada was a signatory but recently withdrew after emission targets were not being met
Withdrawal of the U.S. has severely reduced its effectiveness

44
Q

What is the Paris Climate Agreement?

A

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

45
Q

What is carbon sequestration?

A

A process that refers to the capture and storing of carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere

46
Q

3 methods of Carbon Sequestration?

A

Biological- Planting more trees
Oceanic- Injecting carbon dioxide into the ocean
Geologic- Power plants and industrial facilities designed to capture CO2

Environmental Studies (1 decks)

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