Climate, Climatologists, Climatology

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Climate, Climatologists, Climatology
www.nps.gov
www.climate.gmu.edu

• By Kelly, Mike and Jamie
• October 20th, 2009

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Climate

• Climate is long term weather patterns for an area
• Average temperature and precipitation over time
• Ways to figure out climate amount of sunshine,
  average wind speeds and directions, number of
  days above freezing, weather extremes, and local
  geography

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Francis Galton

• Galton launched his scientific career with an
  expedition to tropical Africa and subsequent
  election to the Royal Geographical Society.
• By studying inheritance statistically, Galton
  founded the "biometric" approach to genetics.
• Galton founded Differential Psychology, sometimes
  called the "London School" of experimental
  psychology..
• The study of heredity could only be placed on a
  scientific basis by introducing new statistical
  concepts like regression and correlation. 
• Galton first described the anti-cyclone and
  pioneered the introduction of weather-maps based
  on charting data about air pressure.

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Edmund Halley

• English astronomer who established the first
  observatory in the southern hemisphere on the
  island of St. Helena.
• After studying comets, he noticed that the path
  of the comets of 1456, 1531, and 1607 were
  surprisingly similar.
• He surmised that these three sightings were
  different apparitions of a single comet, which he
  predicted would return again around 1758.
• He died before his prediction was tested, but
  the comet indeed returned and has been known as
  Halley's Comet ever since. When Flamsteed died in
  1720, Halley was appointed Royal Astronomer at
  Greenwich Observatory.

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Whaldimir Köppen

• German meteorologist, climatologist and botanist.
  
• He elaborated the Köppen climate classification
  system, which is still commonly used today to
  group climates into similar types (albeit with
  modifications).
• responsible for establishing a weather
  forecasting service for the northwestern part of
  Germany and the adjacent sea areas. After four
  years of service, he was able to move on to his
  primary interest - the fundamental research - and
  left the meteorological office.
• Köppen began a study of the climate and also
  experimented with balloons to obtain data from
  upper air. This work led to the development of
  the Köppen climate classification system around
  1900.
• The full version of his system appeared first in
  1918 and, after several modifications, the final
  version was published in 1936. .
• Alfred Wegener was his son-in-law

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Milutin Milankovic

• The Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Milankovitc is
  best known for developing one of the most
  significant theories relating Earth motions and
  long-term climate change 
• Born in 1879 in the rural village of Dalj
• Milankovitc dedicated his career to developing a
  mathematical theory of climate based on the
  seasonal and latitudinal variations of solar
  radiation received by the Earth.
• Milankovitc Theory, it states that as the Earth
  travels through space around the sun, cyclical
  variations in three elements of Earth-sun
  geometry combine to produce variations in the
  amount of solar energy that reaches Earth
• Variations in the Earth's orbital
  eccentricitythe shape of the orbit around the
  sun.
• Changes in obliquitychanges in the angle that
  Earth's axis makes with the plane of Earth's
  orbit.
• Precessionthe change in the direction of the
  Earth's axis of rotation,
• Orbital motions have become known as Milankovitc
  cycles.

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Hubert Lamb

• English climatologist  
• Refused to work on the meteorology of gas
  spraying during World War II 
• Founder and first Director (1971-1977) of the
  Climatic Research Unit.

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Köpplens Classification

• Groups of climates into similar types
• Five major climate types based on the annual and
  monthly averages of temperature and precipitation

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Climate Affect Biomes
http//www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ess05_int_biom
emap/

• Biome is defined by its climate and the types of
  plants and species of animals that live there.

Tundra Forest Savanna Taiga Rainforests Chapar
ral Grasslands Alpine Desert-scrub Desert
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Areas most affected by Climate

• So if a lush tropical rain forest stops getting
  rain. Pretty soon all the plants and animals will
  die out or adapt, or flee from that area. Pretty
  soon that tropical rain forest will turn into a
  desert. A desert biome has some characteristics
  and a tropical rain forest has some others.
• If the climate changes, the whole biome will be
  affected and will turn into something else.
  sometimes the change is positive and sometimes
  negative. if u switch the rainforest thing
  around, then the affect is positive.
• Marine biome has the most diversity

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Climate affect Biodiversity

• Variation of life forms within a given ecosystem,
  biome, or for the entire Earth.
• Scientists predict that climate change will
  significantly affect the land base and the living
  organisms and communities that depend on it.
• Global warming is recognized as a key threat to
  biodiversity.
• Used as a measure of the health of biological
  systems
• The biodiversity found on Earth today consists
  of many millions of distinct biological species,
  which is the product of nearly 3.5 billion years
  of evolution.
• Environmental conditions play a key role in
  defining the function and distribution of plants,
  in combination with other factors.
• Changes in long term environmental conditions
  that change the climate are known to have had big
  impacts on plant diversity patterns in the past
  and are seen as having significant current
  impacts.
• Predicted that climate change will remain one of
  the major drivers of biodiversity patterns in the
  future.
• Marine biome has the most diversity

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Areas least affected by Climate

• Biomes are defined as "the world's major
  communities, classified according to the
  predominant vegetation and characterized by
  adaptations of organisms to that particular
  environment"
• The importance of biomes cannot be
  underestimated. Biomes have changed and moved
  many times during the history of life on Earth.
  More recently, human activities have drastically
  altered these communities. 
• Desert and Arctic biomes have the least
  precipitation. 
• San Francisco is one of the most affected areas
  by precipitation.
• The biome that is least affected by biodiversity
  aerial biome because nothing live in the air
  except for some bacteria and viruses

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Work Cited

• www.classzone.com/book/earth_science
• www.galton.org
• www.earthobservery.nasa.gov/features/milankovic
• www.space.about.com/astronomerbios/a/edmundhalley
• www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/lamb
• www.britannica.com/EBchecked/.../Wladimir-Peter-Ko
  ppen
• www.greenlearning.ca/climate/science/ecosystem-eff
  ects/2
• www.blueplanetbiomes.org