Chapter 10: Global Change

Ocean acidification

________ damages corals by decreasing their ability to calcify (due to loss of calcium carbonate), making it difficult for them to form shells.

Oxygen starvation

________ caused by increase in zooplankton after overfishing.

Chlorofluorocarbons

________ (CFCs) have the highest GWP, followed by nitrous oxide, and then methane.

Carbon dioxide

________, which has a GWP of 1, is used as a reference point for the comparison of the impacts of different greenhouse gases on global climate change.

Earths

The increase in the ________ temperature will lead to a variety of changes to the ________.

Mineral dust

________ carried in dust storms caused by drought.

Coral reefs

________ are created by small marine animals (called cnidarians), which are involved in mutualistic relationships with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae.

Reefs

________ provide local populations with a great variety of seafood and are popular recreational areas for humans.

Physical changes

________ on Earth include continued rising temperatures, further melting of glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, changes in precipitation patterns (with wet areas getting more precipitation and dry areas getting less precipitation), an increase in the frequency and duration of storms, an increase in the number of hot days, and a decrease in the number of cold days.

Climate change

________ may change the circulation patterns of wind, because the temperature changes may impact Hadley cells and the jet stream.

carbon dioxide

While the Earth has undergone climate change throughout geologic time, with major shifts in global temperatures causing periods of warming and cooling as recorded with ________ data and ice cores, we have recently reached the unavoidable consensus that the global climate is undergoing a shift that is almost certainly in large part due to these human contributions: an idea referred to simply as climate change.

carbon dioxide

Complicating the picture of oceanic effects is the phenomenon of ocean acidification, the decrease in pH of the oceans thats primarily another effect of the increased ________ concentrations in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels, vehicle emissions, and deforestation.

In this chapter, we zoom out to the global picture-first, with the biggest environmental problem facing humanity

global climate change

Then well talk about the other major global problem

loss of biodiversity

It looks something like this

the suns rays strike the Earth, and some of the solar radiation is reflected back into space; however, greenhouse gases in the troposphere intercept and absorb a lot of this radiation

Remember

the greenhouse effect results in the surface temperature necessary for life on Earth to exist

While the Earth has undergone climate change throughout geologic time, with major shifts in global temperatures causing periods of warming and cooling as recorded with carbon dioxide data and ice cores, we have recently reached the unavoidable consensus that the global climate is undergoing a shift that is almost certainly in large part due to these human contributions

an idea referred to simply as climate change

The change in sea level will have effects

some positive (for example, in newly created habitats on newly-flooded continental shelves) and some negative (for example, in deeper communities that may no longer fall within the photic zone of seawater)

Some species are experiencing reproductive and metabolic changes, just as with ocean warming; and the greatest effects of acidification can be seen in organisms that make use of calcification (as in shells)

for example, corals