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Climate and Global Change Notes
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Climate & Global Change
The Earth’s Carbon Cycle
Carbon BudgetCarbon Change
Rain ForestBiodiversity
Human ActivitiesBurning Cycles
Natural ChangesDesertification
SahelDeforestation
Science Concepts
Feedbacks
Photosynthesis
The Earth System (Kump, Kastin & Crane)
• Chap. 8 (pp. 165-167)
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The Carbon Cycle
CarbonBudget
Intermediate and Deep Waters38000 + 2/year
0.2
4 5 37
3640Biota 3
Surface Ocean 1000 + 1/yearRivers0.8
Land Biota550
Atmosphere 750 + 3/year
9050 501025
Fossil Fuel
2
Deforestation
92
Sedimentation
Soil and Detritus1500
50
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The Carbon Cycle
OceanCarbonBudget
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The Carbon Cycle
Carbon Change
• The largest human contribution to climate change
• Human activity adds CO2 to the atmosphere
- Fossil fuels - biomass burning - cement production
• Carbon dioxide naturally cycles among the land, atmosphere and oceans
• Knowledge of the carbon cycle is essential to forecasting human influences on climate
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
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http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/images/carboncycle_jpg_image.html
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The Carbon Cycle
Net Primary Productivity
• Amount of carbon consumed by plants (both on land and in the ocean) per
square kilometer, called net primary productivity, in 2002
• Note: Rain-forest areas are regions of high carbon consumptions
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Study/LBA/escape.html
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The Carbon Cycle
Rainforests
• Where are they?Area of Closed
Country Forest in 1985 (Hectares)Brazil 357,480,000Indonesia 113,895,000Zaire 105,750,000Peru 69,680,000India 51,841,000Colombia 46,400,000Mexico 46,250,000Bolivia 44,010,000Papua New Guinea 34,230,000Burma 31,941,000Venezuela 31,870,000Congo 21,340,000Malaysia 20,995,000Gabon 20,500,000Guyana 18,475,000Cameroon 17,920,000Suriname 14,830,000Ecuador 14,250,000Madagascar 10,300,000
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The Carbon Cycle
Rainforests (Con’t)
• Biodiversity Importance
- Bushmaster snake (lives in the rainforest) venom used as a
pattern to make hypertension medicine.
- As of 1985, 119 pure chemical substances extracted from
higher plants were used in medicine. Therapeutic
Plant Drug CategoryFoxglove Digitoxin Cardiotonix
Opium poppy Codeine AnalgesicMorphine SedativeTobacco Nicotine InsecticideMay apple Podophyllotoxin Cancer
White willow Salicin Analgesic(Asperin - known to Hippocrates)
Cocoa, Cacoa Theobromine DiureticCurare Tubocurarine Skeletal muscle relaxant
(Arrow poison)Pacific yew Toxal Ovarian Cancer
(4-6 trees to treat 1 woman)(~200,000 trees exist)(20,000 cases per year)
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The Carbon Cycle
South AmericanBurning Cycles
• 1998 firesJan - Dec
• Note - Aug/Sept/Oct max for central and southern regions
• Note - Feb/Marmax fornorthern area
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South AmericanBurning Cycles (Con’t)
The Carbon Cycle
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African Burning Cycles• 1998 fires Jan - Dec • Dec/Jan max through central Africa, Jun/Jul max farther south
The Carbon Cycle
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Desertification
90°N 60°N 30°N 0° 30°S 60°S 90°S
0
-500
500
1000
1500
2000
Latitude
Rainfall Evaporation
Runoff
Millimeters per year
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
Study/Desertification/
desertification.html?
June 2005
Sahel
• Sahel stretches across Africa, roughly 15° north of Equator
• Satellite measurements of vegetation reveal it as a transition zone between sands of the Sahara and jungles of the Congo in heart of Africa
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Desertification
Sahel (Con’t)
• CollapseN
N/2
1920 1960 2000 2040Year
Cattle, Camels, & Goats (N = 600,000)
Population (N = 150,000)
Soil Condition: Grams of vegetation per 10,000 m2
(N = 450)
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Desertification/desertification2.html
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Desertification
Sahel (Con’t)
• MODIS
- Albedo
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.50Albedo
0.40
0.30
0.05
0.15
0.25
0.35
0.45
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Desertification/desertification2.html
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Desertification
Sahel (Con’t)
• Change
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http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Desertification/desertification2.html
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Desertification
Sahel (Con’t)
• 2003 data spatially averaged over area 8.5ºW–8.5ºE and 12.5º–15.5ºN
• Monthly mean precipitation in millimeters per day (blue)
• Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) (green)
• Broadband surface albedo (red)
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http://www.agu.org/journals/eo/eo0703/2007EO030002.pdf#anchorEos, Vol. 88, No. 3, 16 January 2007
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Desertification
Sahel (Con’t)
• 1984 and 2003 latitudinal profile of total June to October (JJASO) precipitation
• 1984 and 2003 mean August to October (ASO) broadband surface albedo averaged between18ºW and 20ºE
http://www.agu.org/journals/eo/eo0703/2007EO030002.pdf#anchorEos, Vol. 88, No. 3, 16 January 2007
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Brazilian Rainforests
1975 1986
Deforestation
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Rondonia, Brazil
1973 1978 1983
Deforestation
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Guatemala
Deforestation
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Guatemala
• 1986 to 1997
• Red is forest; Greens are roads and cleared land
• Area of picture about 40% size of New Jersey
1986 - Peten, Guatemala
Deforestation
1997 - Peten, Guatemala
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Facts
• Equivalent of ten city blocks of rainforest is destroyed every minute, that an area the size of Pennsylvania lost every year
• 7% of the Earth's dry land surface is rainforest, home to more than 50% of the world's plants and animals
• A bulldozer must remove 60 rainforest trees to reach one mahogany tree
• There are 100 different species of large trees in a single acre of rainforest
Deforestation
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Facts
• Estimate rate of deforestation
Deforestation
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System Dynamics
The Earth System (Kump, Kastin & Crane)
• Chap. 2 (pp. 18-20)• Chap. 14 (pp. 279-280
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System Dynamics
Positive Feedback
• Desertification - Sahel
• Ice - Albedo feedback
Negative Feedback
• CO2 - Cloud - Albedo feedback
• CO2 - Plankton feedback