Read the summary and the most important questions on Climate Change Biology | 9780127999234 | Lee Hannah

• 2 Climate system and climate change

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• What is climate change biology

  The study of the impact of climte change on natural systems, with emphasis on understanding hte future impacts of human-induced climate change.

• What disciplines does climate change biology have?

  Paleoecology, global change biology, biogeography and climatology.

• Whawt are the two most abundant greenhouse gases in the atmosphere?

  CO2 and water vapor. Atmospheric Co2 concentrations resulting from human pollution is projected to cause major altertions to the earth's climate ystem and global mean temperature in the twenty-first century

• What is the greenhouse effect?

  The Earth's atmosphere trap heat. Sunlight warms the Earths's surface, which then radiates long-wave radiation. Some of this radiation is adsorbed and reemitted by gases such as CO2 and water vapor. Part of the reemitted radiation is directed back at the Earth, resulting in a net redirection of long-wave radaition from space and back to Earth. This warms the lower reaches of the atmosphere, much as glass in greenhouse traps heat form the sun.

• How is the atmospheric increased by humans?

  Primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. Beginning with coal at the outset of the industrial evolution and transitioning to oil and natural gas as economies advances, the power for our electricity, indutry and transport has been drawn heavily from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are rich in carbon, and burning them both releasses their stored energy and combines their carbon with oxygen to produce CO2

• What is the climate system composed of?

  Atmosphere
  oceans
  earths land surface
  hydrology
  movement of gases including water vapor
  solar energy / sun
  variations in the earth's orbit in relation to the sun, shape and position of continents and oceans
  Upper-level winds
  ozone layer
  snow and ice
  soil mosture and temperature
  land surface processes
  realistic geography
  sea ice
  surface water winds
  marine ecosystems
  ocean bottom topography
  vertical overturning
  oceans currents, temperature and salinity
  air-sea exchanges
  human-produced emissions
  atmospheric chemistry
  evaporation
  outgoing heat

• What the main constituents in the atmosphere?

  Nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Water vapor and Co2 are minor constituents of the atmosphere but potent greenhouse gases.

• How do oceans play a role in the climate system?

  Important because they are vast reservoirs of water and sissolved gass and contribtute most of the water vapor found in the atmosphere. Warmer oceans give off more water vapor. They also produce larger and more severe storms such as hurricanes. Oceans adsorb Co2, reducing its concentration in the atmosphere

• How did oxygen became a major component of the atmosphere?

  Earth was fomed 4.5 billion years ago, and within 1 billion years single celled life appeared. Microbial photosynthesis over hunderedd of millions of years produced enough oxygen for more life to appear. This occured in microbial mats / stromatolites, that are dominant in the fossil record/stony acreetions for billions of years.

• How was the ozone layer formed?

  Aprox. 600 million years ago, oxygen build up by single celled organisms was sufficient to support the formation of an ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. Sunlight bombarding the upper atmosphere split oxygen atoms to create free oxygen radicals, some of which recombined with oxygen to form ozone. At this point the major characteristcs of the atmosphere were formed, oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor and an ozone layer