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natsci 3

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Avg american as compared to avg world in gdp, energy, and co2
1:4
co2 molecule
atoms covalently bonded (shared electrons)-- oxygen is powerful electron grabber so c atom is not as energized as in other molecules
why is co2 waste gas?
burning it puts it in a lower energy state than before (in fossil fuels, in our bodies)
importance of structure of co2 molecule
molecules with 3 or more can be ghgs because can stretch and vibrate-- can absorb and rerelease infrared wavelengths
greenhouse gases
co2, h2o, ch4, n2o, o3, cfcs
greenhouse effect
earth is 15c/59f, emits infrared radiation, co2 absorbs infrared and releases some up and some back to earth
biggest problem with climate predictions
clouds-- absorb infrared and reflect sunlight
Mauna Loa
Charles David Keeling-- peak in may, low in sept/oct b/c land plants, avg co2 levels rising
bicarbonate ion
neg charge, most abundant form of c in oceans
ch4
30 x more potent as ghg than co2, much less abundant, comes from methanogens (archaea, microbes- anaerobic, found in flooded rice patties& guts of cows and termites) and from leaks in nat'l gas pipelines and landfills
what are jakes?
young turkeys in new mexico fighting
mauna loa and south pole data
co2 rising at same rate, sp 1.2 yrs behind b/c takes 1 yr to mix atmosphere and hadley cells kind of keep hemispheres seperate, but not completely
barrow alaska and samoa data
barrow huge oscillations and samoa hardly any b/s diff in land ecosystems
proof for fluctuations due to land plants
carbon-13 is stable rare isotope, c-12 is most common form, [c-13/c-12] ratio for plant is less than ratio in atm. b/c plants depleted in c-13 as it moves more slowly in metabolism. it was found that the atm. [c-13/c-12] ratio also oscillates, but opposite from the co2 oscillations (up in sept, down in may) b/c plants are pulling in c-13. also the overall ratio is going down b/c fossil fuels added
coal
buried land plants and ancient swamps-- low [c-13/c-12] ratio
oil
buried marine phytoplankton-- low [c-13/c-12] ratio
natural gas
methane from oil & coal- when oil and coal is cooked under ground, ch4 released, better b/c less co2 per unit energy (about 1/2 of coal)
natural releases of co2 into biosphere
limestone rock- calcium carbonate & vocanoes-- total 400 mil metric tons or .4 gigatons C/yr
natural system to remove co2
limestone and volcanoes release .4 gt-c/yr, c goes into ocean and caco3 taken up as coral and other marine shells and gas exchange total .4 gt-c/yr
bioturbation
microbes mix soil
co2 exchange in oceans
need equilibrium-- fish filter o2 out of water, once co2 in oceans becomes hco3 or co3, phytoplankton take up co2 as biological carbon, copopods (zooplankton) eat algae/phytoplankton and fish eat copopods, both emit co2 in breath, bacteria emit co2 in deep water
biological pump
ocean 4 km deep- photosynthesizers near ocean surface take in co2 so less co2 in surface water, respirers in the rest give off co2 so theres more co2 in deep water
pools/bowls/reservoirs of carbon (from most to least)
deep ocean 35000 gtc, soils 2000 gtc, surface oceaan 100 m deep 800 gtc, atmosphere 800 gtc, landplants 600 gtc, marine life 2 gtc
npp- photosynthesizers
land plants 60 gtc/yr, marine life 40 gtc/yr
why such diff in efficiency btwn land and ocean?
in ocean, h2o everywhere, and land plants need to build structures to hold photosynthesizing parts up
residence "turnover" times
how long atom of c will stay in pool-- mass in pool of c/input or output
total C in biosphere & residence time
40,000 gtc, residence time is 40000/.4= 100,000 yrs
total amount of C in atmosphere and residence time
800 gtc, 4 yrs
law dome
back to year 1000 ad, constant at 280 ppm until 1850s
taylor dome
back to 10,000 bce fluctuates only 20 ppm (260-280)... 20,000 yrs ago, last ice age, low co2, co2 half responsible for ice age
vostok
co2 oscillates w/ ice age-- every approx 100,000 yrs, determined bio. pump of ocean changes during ice ages
ice age- where ice spread and ave temp
n. america down to nyc & chicago, through europe-- avg temp 5 degrees c colder, tropics didnt change too much b/c ice-albido feedback, sea level 100 ft lower, anatomicall modern humans during ice age
where did coldness in ice age come from?
half highly reflective ice (ice- albedo feedback), half reduced greenhouse effect/co2 levels
anticipated global temp?
3 degrees c warmer
what is the concern with coral?
coral is being bleached, losing the plankton/ algae inside them, co2 is acidifying the ocean and will prevent caco3 shells from forming
giga
global industrial growth automaton-- gwp growing 3.1% per year
giga projections for 2050
gwp 4x today, global pop 8-9 bil people, per capita gwp about = to todays europe/japan
what are todays avg countries in terms of gwp?
china, turkey, mexico, romania
what is different about europes wealth as compared to us?
creates wealth w/ less energy/co2-- more mass transit & communal living
china relationship btwn gdp & co2
just reached world avg per capita, but co2 emissions higher b/c coal
why is coal particulary bad?
very little hydrogen
co2/energy's overall growth in relation to gwp
growing, but not as much.
constant airborne fraction
about 40% per decade increase in atmosphere as compared to total emissions
projected ppm raise in 2050
100 ppm
positive feedback loops
worrisome-- ex C in permafrost
fossil fuel energy servants
bangladeshi emits 70 kg-c/yr, food intake is 90 kg-c/yr, so less than 1 energy servant. us emits 5300 kg-c/yr, so about 60 servants! global avg has about 13 ff servants
which latitudes temp will change the most
higher latitudes will change b/c ice-albedo feedback
negawatts
conservation/ efficiency in use
nuclear fission, probs, amount in use
controlling split of uranium atom, probs nuclear waste & uranium 235 is limited resource, 1/5 of us electrical, 800 billion kilowatt hrs/yr
total us electrical output
about 4200 billion kilowatt hours
nuclear fusion
H+H=He, done it in labs and H bombs, still developing, no where near being commercialized
carbon capture & storage(sequestration)
pipe deep into oceans, aquifers/salines (nondrinking water), oil wells offshore (norway), coal mines (coal absobs co2)
hydroelectricity
current (2007) annual hydroelectric output for u.s.: about 250 billion kilowatt-hours --we have dammed what we can dam
1 btu=
amnt of heat to raise 1 lb of water 1 degree f
wind power
32 bil kilowatt hrs, less than .1% electricity energy
solar power
more expensive than wind, used more for heat, less than .1% of nuclear generated, 1/60 whats being generated by wind, .08% total energy consumption
parabolic trough
reflects sunlight into tube and heats water-- concentrates sunlight to heat it up
biomass
use of wood and other biological materials-- more than wood, less than nuclear-- total (heat+electric) 3.6%
by excluding starfish as predators, did mollusk biodiversity inc or dec?
decrease?
why is horseshoe crab blood blue
copper
in which biome are plants with most biomass most likely to stay green all year?
boreal forest
hudson river has tides all the way to albany.. what is the hudson river?
estuary
which is growing slowest in % change per year-- wild catch or aquaculture?
wild catch
decline of what creature dlayed in role of decline in chesapeake water quality
oyster
has the fact that humans prefer higher trophic level fish led the avg trophic level of fish catch to increase ?
no.
a more recent theory of biodiversity than theory of island biogeography
theory of metapopulations
is human appropriation for global npp more than 10%?
yes
endangered species act--yr
1973
mva
minimum viable area
how many species currently known?
1.5 million
what percent ofspecies defined are insects?
haf
can aspen trees reproduce asexually?
yes
what do parasites/ disease causing organisms have to do with current theory of benefits of sex?
if animal inflicted, only half genes go to child
what is unusual about relatinship btwn sex and death in pacific salmon?
many die in process
4 bases of dna
tagc
how long ago did life originate?
3.9 bya according to isotope evidence
3 main largest groups of life
bacteria, archaea, eukarya
how would geologists most precisely date ancient rocks
half-life of radionuclides
for most of earths history, land life would be most similar to what?
cryptogamic soils
stromatolites
structures built by ancient microbial cells
for what span of lifes existence on earth were organisms like bacteria most advanced forms of life
half
the atmospheres of venus and mars are mostly what?
co2
oxygen becomes a net extra amnt in atmosphere what what is buried (leaves biosphere)?
carbon
how long ago did initialrise in atmospheric oxygen occur?
2 billion years
tiktaalik
fossil of creature btwn fish and amphibians
geological time period when land plants evolved from tiny mosslike plants called cooksonia into giant trees
devonian
how many years did it take for evolution to push tinymosses into giant trees?
20 million years
dickinsonia
strange fossil, multicelled flat creature that lived prior to cambrian explosion is found in edicarian hills
tetrapods began with ancestors of todays what?
frogs
how many yrs ago did giant asteroid wipe out dinos?
65 million ya
what key discovery led to the idea that an asteroid killed dinos?
found a layer of rock dated to time of k-t mass extinction which contained iridium, found mainly in space
the most direct ancestor of mammals are..
mammal-like reptiles
at 4 mya, had primate lineage that led to humans already diverged from chimps?
yes
footprints made 3.5 mya
made by austrolopichecus
how many times larger is human brain then chimps/gorillas?
3 x
what was not found in paleolithis cultural explosion?
stone tools
how long ago did sapiens and neanderthal split?
500,000 yrs ago
eearliest symbolic art found where?
africa
where is hydrogen from
not in stars, hydrogen been around since after big bang
what does red shift show about universe?
accelerated expansion
what is earths circumference?
24,000 miles
picture of deep sky taken by cobe shows what?
temp diff soon after big bang
current avg temp of universe close to what?
freezing pt of water
how many years ago was earth formed?
4.5 bya
how much ordinary matter, dark matter, and dark energy in universe?
om- 4%, dm- 23%, de- 73%
how can we know about presence of specific elements such as ca way out in space
its photon print on e-m spectrum shifts

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