Tools in Assessing Climate Change and CC Scenarios Flashcards
It a plausible representation of future climate that has been constructed for explicit use in investigating the potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change.
Climate Change Scenario
Climate scenarios often make use of _______ _______, by manipulating model outputs and combining them with observed climate data.
climate projections
What are the assumptions and uncertain factors that make the future climate pattern difficult to predict?
- population growth
- the use of carbon fuel as an energy source
- technological development
- economic development
- policies and attitudes toward environment
What are the climate data needed in making climate projections?
- VARIABLES
- SPATIAL SCALES
- TEMPORAL RESOLUTION
- EXTREME EVENTS
The climate variables required are dependent on the ______ ____ _____.
impact models used
What are the most common variables in impact studies?
a. surface observations of air temperature and precipitation
b. solar radiation
c. humidity
d. windspeed
e. soil temperature
f. snow cover
What are the specific variables that certain climate scenario construction procedures require?
a. daily air pressure data
b. mean sea-level pressure
It is useful for climate change impact assessment of coastal zones.
Sea-Level Rise
An index useful for identifying important large-scale climatic variations such as El Niño events.
Southern Oscillation Index
It depends on the objective of modeling and technical factors in the modeling such as the coverage area, quality of source data, and terrain condition
Spatial Scales
What are the required climate information or data in spatial scales?
a. single site (e.g., for assessing crop response to climate),
b. region (e.g., for modeling surface water distribution over a large water catchment),
c. the whole globe (e.g., for modeling changes in geographical life-zone distribution).
Range of Temporal Resolution
a. annual
b. seasonal
c. monthly
d. daily
e. hourly
Some cases, long-term averages may suffice (e.g., for _______ ____ _____) but in some impact studies, daily time series are essential (e.g., for _________ ________ _____ ____).
mapping vegetation distribution, simulating landslide mechanisms about rainfall
Studies of disasters often require knowledge of the probabilistic distribution of extremes in a certain period and area at risk.
Extreme Events
It is usually for estimating the risk of climate related disasters such as storm surges, droughts and forest and land fires.
Extreme Events
It describes some pathways that emissions will take over time.
Emission Scenarios
Based on the inputted emissions, the model will help us determine what will likely happen in the future in terms of?
temperature, sea level rise, and precipitation
As emissions are fed into the ______ ______, the model will help us determine what will likely happen in future
climate models
Two main approaches in emission scenarios as prescribed by IPCC:
➢ Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) of 2000
➢ Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP), 2014
This is developed by IPCC and can give the range of plausible future climate.
SRES (Special Report on Emission Scenarios)
They are also sometimes referred to as emission pathways.
storylines
A storyline where there is a very rapid growth, population peaks mid-century; social, cultural and economic convergence among regions; market mechanisms dominate.
A1
A storyline where self reliance; preservation of local identities; continuously increasing population; and economic growth on regional scales.
A2
A storyline where clean and efficient technologies; reduction in material use; global solutions to economic growth on regional scales.
B1
A storyline where Local solution to sustainability; continuously increasing population at a lower rate than in A2; less rapid technological change in B1 and A1.
B2
What is the other model used to build a scenario which is a reverse of SRES?
REPRESENTATIVE CONCENTRATION PATHWAY (RCP)
This model defines the GHG trajectories first, then define what human responses corresponds to those trajectories
REPRESENTATIVE CONCENTRATION PATHWAY (RCP)
What are the factors for changes in RFA?
- predictive solar output
- all GHGs that affect energy flows
- the use of aerosol and black carbon
- snow
- land use change
includes the biomass of tree, understory and herbaceous vegetation
Aboveground biomass (AGB)
includes the biomass of the soil and roots
Belowground biomass
the dry matter weight of organic material (above-or belowground, live or dead)
Biomass
a reservoir or a system which has the capacity to accumulate or release carbon.
Carbon Pool
What are the examples for carbon pool?
forest biomass
wood products
soils
and atmosphere
the natural features that absorb CO2, such as forests or seas.
Carbon Sink
the absolute quantity of carbon held within a pool at the specified time.
Carbon stock
standing dead tree and fallen logs.
Course wood debris (CWD)
the L and O horizon comprising of dead plant material that lies on top of the mineral soil.
Litter
deadwood material in the forest that is beyond 5cm dbh and 0.5m length.
Necromass
the yearly sequestration of CO2, taken from the difference between sequestration observation for two time periods divided by the number of years elapsed.
Sequestration rate
the amount of carbon derived from the weight of soil in Mg multiplied by %SOC. The %SOC being derived from its relations to %OM.
Soil organic carbon (SOC)
undergrowth which includes saplings, wildlings and grass
Understory/herbaceous plants
the process of capturing carbon from the atmosphere so that the buildup of carbon dioxide (the principal greenhouse gas) concentration will be reduced (Iverson et al., 1993)
Carbon Sequestration
an anthropogenic intervention designed to reduce the emissions or to enhance the sinks to greenhouse gases.
Climate Change Mitigation
interventions to minimize the impact of climate change to those likely to be affected by this phenomenon.
Climate Change Adaptation
It measures the potential of a forest and its components or an
ecosystem component to sequester Carbon.
Carbon stock assessment
What is the concept of all C assessment tools?
“A tree is 50% carbon”
wood is
Carbon, ____
Oxygen, ___
Hydrogen ____ and
Nitrogen ____ (Rowell, et al., 2012)
50%
42%
6%
1%
the amount of GHG often measured using CO2 equivalent
Greenhouse gas emission
a tool that can provide historical information of the anthropogenic GHG emission sources and removals within a certain area (IPCC, 2013).
GHG emission inventory or accounting
