Transcript Global Patterns

Global Patterns
The Carbon Cycle
Upwelling
Ocean Currents
Abrupt Climate Change
Carbon Storage
(sinks)
Carbon Cycle
Human Impact
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Extraction of fossil fuels from the ground.
Burning - called combustion.
Deforestation - cutting & burning trees
– Trees can no longer remove carbon from the air
– Burning trees releases CO2 into the air
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Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas
Upwelling
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Deep, cold and nutrient rich water rises up
through the water column.
Happens along the eastern margins of
oceanic basins
Wind and water current directions tend to
be caused by the rotation of the planet
Upwelling Animation (NASA)
El Niño
Happens in the Pacific,
along the equator.
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Caused by a change in the
wind pattern
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Changes how the Pacific distributes heat to other parts
of Earth
A redistribution of rainfall around the Pacific Ocean
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Can alter the weather in places far from the Pacific.
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Normal conditions
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Winds
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Water temperature
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Upwelling
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Animals & plants
El Niño
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Winds
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Upwelling
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Water temperature
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Animals & plants
The Impact of El Niño
A global connection
Normal Winter
El Nino Winter
The El Niño years
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A weak, warm current
– annually around Christmas time along the coast of Ecuador
and Peru and lasting only a few weeks
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Every three to seven years, an El Niño event may last
for many months,
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During the past forty years, ten of these major El Niño
events have been recorded,
– the worst of which occurred in 1997-1998.
– 1982-1983 was the strongest.
– Some of the El Niño events have persisted more than one
year.
La Niña
La Niña (female child) refers to an anomaly
of unusually cold sea surface temperatures
found in the eastern tropical Pacific. La
Niña occurs roughly half as often as El
Niño.
Global Ocean Currents
(Surface)
Conveyor Belt
A vast ocean current system
(Deep
water)
Transports heat and
•
moisture around the
Planet
• Conveyor is
delicately balanced
• Has shut down or
changed direction
many times in Earth's
history
Ocean conveyor belt
Driven by salt and temperature differences
Sea ice is made
of fresh water It leaves salt behind
Salty water is
Heavier so it sinks.
What happens if there
Is less sea ice?
Impact of Conveyor changes
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Winter temperatures in the North Atlantic region
would fall by 20 or more degrees
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Dublin would acquire the climate of Spitsbergen,
600 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
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Significant global temperature changes within
decades, as well as large-scale wind shifts,
dramatic fluctuations in atmospheric dust levels,
glacial advances or retreats and other changes over
many regions of the Earth.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/11/13.html
The Day After Tomorrow!
the first "climate disaster movie"

Can it really happen?
http://www.thedayaftertomorrow.com/
Abrupt Climate Change
• “Abrupt climate change" describes changes
in climate that occur over the span of years to
decades
• Human-caused changes in climate that are
occurring over the time span of decades to centuries.
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/arch/
See the Movie
but remember what you learned
in Earth System Science!
Earth:
It’s all connected