What are the greenhouse gases that have the largest warming effect on the Earth?
- CO2 (cell resp. burning fossil fuels)
- Water vapour (evaporation, transpiration)
Greenhouse gases with less impact
- Methane (marshes, organic landfill sites, extraction of fossil fuels)
- Nitrogen oxides (naturally by bacteria, agriculture, vehicle exhausts)
Why is the surface of the Earth warmer at night if there is cloud cover?
Water droplets on clouds retain heat during day and at night re-radiate heat back to the surface
Why is the surface of the Earth cooler when there is more cloud coverage?
Water droplets in clouds reflect a range of different wavelengths in both directions (including radiation coming inward that would have been re-emitted as heat)
How can historic carbon dioxide concentrations be deduced from ice cores?
- Ice cores drilled in Antarctic ice sheets
- Core shows annual layers, used to date air bubbles trapped in the ice
- Analysis of the gas content of the bubbles gives both concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and the air temperature (from O2 isotopes) during the time the ice was formed
What will increases in greenhouse gas concentrations cause?
- higher global average temperatures
- more frequent and intense heat waves
- some areas becoming more prone to droughts
- more evaporation of water from oceans
- some areas more prone to intense periods of rainfall and flooding
- tropical storms more frequent and powerful
- changes to ocean currents
Ocean acidification caused by CO2
- ocean absorbs around 25% of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere
- more CO2 in ocean results in acidification, since 1800, pH of seawater has fallen by 0.1 pH units or 30% increase in acidity
Molecules that CO2 can form when dissolving in water
- dissolved free CO2
- carbonic acid (H2CO3)
- bicarbonate (HCO(-3))
- carbonate (CO3 (2-))
Formation of carbonic acid, bicarbonate and carbonate release H+ ions, further decreasing the pH of seawater
Species at risk
Marine calcifying species
- oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep sea corals, calvados’s plankton
Need to absorb carbonate ions from seawater to make CaCO3 in their skeletons
Species that are benefitted
Photosynthetic algae and sea grasses
Low CO2 is a limiting factor for photosynthesis
