Anthropocene

• Current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and environment

• The time period where humans have had an impact

Examples of Anthropocene

1. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest

2. Gold mining: mercury from illegal mining goes into H2O

The Crisis of Climate Change

• Sea levels rising

• Significant CO2 increase (human)

• Tipping point

  • A point of no return

    • Increased humidity

    • More precipitation

    • Decreased snow (loss of water)

    • More smog

• International Greed

  • Celebrities and billionaires (private jets)

  • African Agriculture in NY is growing alfalfa in the nature desert preserve

    • Using the only water supply for a neighbouring town

    • Water shortage

    • 300 to 20,000 hectares

• Solutions

  • Individual

    • Biking

    • Milk alternatives

    • Heating

    • Turning off water when not actively using it

  • International

    • Renovate buildings

    • Zero deforestation

    • No new coal plants

    • Zero emission buildings

    • Agriculture

    • Alternative food sources

How will plants and animals cope?

• Migrant Species

  • Optimal conditions

• Tropicalization

  • Increased tropical species

  • movement = disruption

  • hybrids formed

    • variation

    • extinct original species

• Geographical Changes

  • Depth (cooler deeper)

  • Altitudinal (high up)

  • Latitudinal (NIS)

• Drought

  • decreased flowers

  • increased viscosity

• Extreme Weather

  • decreased adaptation

  • certain stages more likely to die (eggs)

  • mating decreases because females are not detect males

• Asynchrony

  • environmental cues

  • the plant comes out at different times than herbivores

• Cucumber Plant

  • symbiotic relationship with pollinators

  • high temperature

    • small flower size

    • same bullseye

    • bigger target

    • less nectar/pollen

  • thin viscosity in heat

• Univoltine Worm

  • pupa digs into the soil in winter

  • early cohort enters early when it’s not soil

    • burns resources

  • late enter

    • reserves resources

  • warmer summers enter earlier, increasing mortality (cooldown)

• Sex Determination

  • turtles depend on the temperature for the sex of the baby

    • below 27.7 C - male

    • above 27.7 C - female

  • all female (parthenogenesis)

  • loose population

• Capacity to Displace

• Industrial Revolution

  • start of Anthropocene

  • coal fires (pollute-black)

  • peppered moths who already had a W&B phenotype (mainly W)

  • in polluted places, mainly B moths are found

• Adaptation

Increased Climate Trends

• Surface temperature

• CO2

• Sea level

• Methane

Decreased Climate Trends

• Sea ice extent

• Global glacier mass balance (glaciers decreased because it melted)

• Greenland ice sheet