Chapter 19 Climate Change and Other Threats to the Biosphere

Overview

Human populations have important impacts on ecosystems, both locally and globally. Just in order to meet basic human needs, our quest for food, drinking water, and places to live creates various disturbances in local ecosystems. Human agriculture and housing for people are two important ways in which we will always alter our local ecosystems. In addition, people’s demands for industrial products and for energy create further impacts. In all these ways, the growth of human populations (Chapter 9) puts ever increasing stress on world ecosystems. Some of these impacts were described in Chapter 18; others, especially those related to pollution, are described in this chapter.

The Earth’s land, water, atmosphere and its living things form a global ecosystem called the biosphere (see Chapter 18). As part of this ecosystem, the atmosphere supports life in the sense that all animals and many other organisms would soon die without oxygen. The atmosphere also supports life in that it maintains the Earth’s surface temperature within a certain range. In another sense, however, it is life on planet Earth that supports Earth’s atmosphere, because all the important atmospheric gases exist in equilibrium with the activities of living organisms: plants and other photosynthesizing organisms produce the oxygen, while bacteria regulate the nitrogen in a cycle described in Sec. 17.3.2.

Human activities can have a great and varying influence on a local scale. People can cut down trees, clear land, plant fields, dig mines, or erect buildings of many kinds. Human activities can also leave behind many waste products, whether intentionally or unintentionally. On a global scale, human activities can also change the Earth’s atmosphere and thus threaten the stability of many ecosystems and myriad species of life on Earth. One such change involves the destruction of atmospheric ozone (O3), allowing more ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, causing higher rates of skin cancer due to mutations in skin cells exposed to that radiation (see Sec. 10.6.4). Another change comes from the buildup of carbon dioxide, which may raise global temperatures to a point that would cause widespread extinctions, devastating crop losses, and the flooding of most coastal cities. Photosynthesis by plants, especially forest plants, may help to limit the buildup of carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. The health of our atmosphere thus depends on the continued health of major ecosystems in the tropics and elsewhere. These are among the issues that we will examine in this chapter.

Chapter Outline

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Review Questions

THE PURPOSE of these review quizzes is to guide students in where their knowledge and understanding is strong, where it is weak, and where time should best be spent in studying.

CHAPTER 19:

  • What is the biosphere?  How has it changed over the course of Earth’s history?  What major events caused these changes?  How has the atmosphere changed over time?  What is the water cycle, and what major processes does it include?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 19.1.)
  • What is pollution?  What are some of the major forms of pollution?  How do we measure pollution?  What are sentinel species?  What are the major sources of water pollution?  How can they best be controlled?    (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 19.2.)
  • How is acid rain produced, and how can it be controlled?  What are some other sources of air pollution, and how can they be controlled?  Why is plastic pollution such a problem?  What is biodegradation, and what is bioremediation?  What are chlorofluorocarbons, and why were they initially used?  What problems have chlorofluorocarbons caused, and what has been done about these problems?  (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 19.3.)
  • What is global warming?  What are its major causes?  What is the evidence for global warming and its causes?  What are some other types of climate change, and how do they relate to global warming?  What is being done to mitigate global warming?  What can you do locally?    (If you cannot explain these things, or if you are not sure, then you need to reread Section 19.3.)

Open Response Study Questions

These questions are designed to assess your understanding of the topics explored in this chapter. You can use these questions in three ways:

Before you start …

Read through the questions before you read the chapter to help prime you to read the text more carefully and strategically. Remember that you are just starting out on your learning journey, so don’t feel disheartened if you don’t know how to answer them yet!

Whilst you read …

As you work through the chapter, have another go at answering the questions to see how you are progressing. You can also answer the questions with the textbook open in front of you, in order to create model answers that can be used to refer back to later.

At the end …

Answer the questions once you have finished reading to see what you have learned. Check your responses against your model answers and use these to identify any gaps in your understanding.

DEFINITIONS:

In your own words, define ANY TWO of the following terms:

biomagnification        sentinel species           eutrophication             Montreal treaty (Montreal protocol)

bioremediation           troposphere    

ESSAYS:

Answer any two of the following questions.  Make sure to answer all parts of any question you choose.

1. Explain why coral reefs are threatened today, and what some of the possible consequences are.

2. How has the atmosphere changed over time?  (A) Describe at least 3 different stages in the composition of Earth’s atmosphere (approx. percentages help), and  (B) explain what brought about the changes from one stage to another.

3. Explain (A) what human activities have threatened the ozone layer,  (B) how these threats came about, and (C) what has happened to these threats since they were discovered.

4. Sulfur occurs in many copper and zinc ores and also as an impurity in certain types of coal.  (A) Explain what problems can result from this (and how), and (B) what political difficulties often make solutions difficult.

5. Explain why (A) ocean acidification, (B) rising sea levels, and (C) droughts and crop failures are among the results of climate change.

6. Explain why each of these might reduce climate change if widely practiced:  (A) bicycling  (B) solar panels (C) recycling  (D) plant-based diets.  Be very clear about all the causal steps in each process!

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