Exam Review Flashcards

Flashcards about exam questions on the search for life, the carbon cycle, mass extinctions, and climate change evidence.

What are the top ways to discover suitable exoplanets?

Radial velocity and transit light method

What are the four categories of exoplanets?

Terrestrial, neptune-like, super earths, and gas giants

How do we narrow down the search for suitable exoplanets?

CHZ and mass

What regulates atmospheric CO2 over deep time in the inorganic carbon cycle?

Volcanism (release of CO2) and weathering (drawdown of CO2)

What are the leading hypotheses of the causes for the Ordovician mass extinction?

Rapid drop in CO2 from biological deposition of organisms in reefs and the weathering of the Appalachians.

What are the leading hypotheses of the causes for the Devonian mass extinction?

Evolution of land plants, which leads to increased weathering, global anoxia due to cyanobacteria blooms, and low CO2 leading to high glaciation.

What are the leading hypotheses of the causes for the Permian mass extinction?

Formation of the siberian traps, in other words, volcanism

What are the leading hypotheses of the causes for the Triassic mass extinction?

CAMP Formation: When Pangea rifts apart into Gondwana and Laurasia, releasing massive amounts of flood basalts

What are the leading hypotheses of the causes for the Cretaceous mass extinction?

Chicxulub impactor and possibly the Deccan traps

What is the geological, chemical, and biological evidence of climate swings and mass extinctions in rocks?

• Evidence of biological responses to climate change, direct physical evidence of climate change in the last century

  • Tree rings

  • Mismatch between consumers and their food source

  • Massive bleaching events for corals

• Paleoclimate proxies

  • What a paleoclimate proxy is, a few examples of them, and what makes a good paleoclimate proxy. Examples, Deuterium, Sr/Ca ratio in corals (Past SST), and oxygen 18(temp) as well as a proxy. Carbon 13/Carbon 14 ratios(provides insight on carbon cycle at the time, as well as temp and plant photosynthesis).

  • Lagerstatten- layers in which fossils are preserved extremely well and gives us a snapshot of the time period, as well as preserving organisms that wouldn’t normally be able to be preserved such as soft bodied organisms. 

What is the evidence of biological responses to climate change?

Tree rings, mismatch between consumers and their food source, massive bleaching events for corals, range shifts of organisms globally, and shifting in biological responses such as blooming, reproduction, and growth

What are some examples of paleoclimate proxies?

Deuterium, Sr/Ca ratio in corals (Past SST), and oxygen 18(temp) as well as a proxy

What are Lagerstatten?

Layers in which fossils are preserved extremely well and gives us a snapshot of the time period

What is the direct physical evidence of climate change in the last century?

Phenological shifts in ice, to water for instance, sea level rising, increasing ocean temperatures, as well as increasing global temperatures and extreme weather events occurring more frequently, shifting precipitation patterns