Why study GLOBAL WARMING

1
Why study GLOBAL WARMING?
www.noaanews.noaa.gov/ stories/s412.htm
2
Photograph by Peter Essick
3
As Habitats Change

• Species distributions are changing
• Some animals are moving toward the poles
• Some are moving up mountains
• Many are losing habitat, migration routes

4
Plants and Disease

• Agricultural crops may be affected as local
  weather and seasons change
• Insect population explosions
• Invasive species
• Disease distributions malaria, cholera, etc

http//www.mindfully.org/Air/Global-Warming-Health
20aug00b.GIF
www.uaf.edu/.../2004/ ninilchik-beetles.html
5
Increased severe weather droughts, floods,
hurricanes
http//magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0409/featu
re3/zoom5.html
6

More than a hundred million people worldwide
live within three feet of mean sea level.
National Geographic fact
http//www.ourbangla.com/bangladesh/pg/flood/FLOOD
_JESSORE_17_8AP_JWH_s0.jpg
7
Causes Greenhouse gases

• Burning fossil fuels
• Forest fires
• Volcanoes
• Deforestation

www.ctv.ca/.../ 1038431872899_41?s_nameno_ads
8
www.unexplainable.net/.../ article_581.shtml
9
Collapsing ground from melting permafrost

• Melting sea ice

http//climchange.cr.usgs.gov/info/assessment/tok.
jpeg
http//www.phenology.org.uk/standard/home/why/imag
es/polalbearsicemelt.jpg
http//www.ciel.org/Pictures/ice_arch.jpg
10

• REDUCE CO2 Emissions!
• Clean Electricity / Alternative Energy
• Smart Transportation and Land Use
• Healthy Farms and Forests
• Promote Conservation / Restoration
• Make Greener Choices

11
So how do ecosystems respond to elevated CO2?

• Study site Cheyenne, WY
• Treatments
• Elevated CO2
• Heating
• Changing rainfall patterns
• CO2 sink or source?

12
(No Transcript)
13
What is happening belowground?
14
CO2 fluxes. Responses to rainfall