Biological carbon and water cycle and how its threatened by humans

Question 1

What changes are there to land cover?

Answer 1

Farmland
Land drainage
Deforestation
Urbanisation
Industrialisation
Reservoir creation

Question 2

What is driving the need for land use change?

Answer 2

growing demands for food, fuel and other resources

Question 3

What are some examples of things that are meaning land conversion is needed?

Answer 3

Increased population growth
Increased economic growth in NICs
Improved living standards

Question 4

What areas are undergoing land conversion?

Answer 4

Deforestation and conversion of grassland to farming mainly LICs and NICs
Afforestation mainly in HICs

Question 5

How much of earths surface is forest?

Answer 5

30%

Question 6

In how many years are rainforests expected to disappear?

Answer 6

Within 100 years

Question 7

How many species from the rainforest go extinct each year?

Answer 7

4-6 thousand

Question 8

How many people rely upon the rainforest?

Answer 8

2 billion

Question 9

How do forests increase ground water stores?

Answer 9

roots increase space for water to infiltrate
DOM in soil acts like a sponge holding water

Question 10

How do forests form a part of the hydrological cycle?

Answer 10

sends large amounts of water back into the atmosphere by evapotranspiration to fall as rain later or elsewhere

Question 11

Where is deforestation mainly occurring? (general)

Answer 11

Poorer countries

Question 12

What is the main driver of deforestation?

Answer 12

increasing demand for land for commodity production, half of all current deforestation is for soy, palm oil, beef and paper

Question 13

What other causes for deforestation are there? (besides for commodities)

Answer 13

Dams and reservoirs
Infrastructure (roads, railway docks and airports)
Open cast mining

Question 14

What is afforestation?

Answer 14

planting of trees on land that has never had trees or not for a long time

Question 15

What is reforestation?

Answer 15

planting trees in places that was recently cleared of trees

Question 16

What is the controversy with afforestation/ reforestation?

Answer 16

Impact on the landscape (e.g. UK upland)
Takes up land for food production
Ruins look of traditional landscape

Question 17

What is ocean acidification?

Answer 17

the decrease in the pH of the worlds oceans caused by their uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Question 18

How much carbon did the IPCC say the oceans had absorbed in 2014?

Answer 18

30% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions

Question 19

What is the scale for ocean acidity?

Answer 19

pH scale
Logarithmic ( each decimal point is a large % change)

Question 20

What is neutral on the pH scale?

Answer 20

7 anything above is alkaline and anything below is acidic

Question 21

What has the pH of the oceans been for the past 300 million years?

Answer 21

8.2

Question 22

What happened to ocean acidity since the industrial revolution began?

Answer 22

fallen to 8.1 (30% drop)

Question 23

What is the pH of the ocean thought to be at the end of the 21st century?

Answer 23

8.04-7.78

Question 24

What is ecosystem resilience?

Answer 24

the level of disturbance that ecosystems can cope with while keeping their original state

Question 25

What happens when a disturbance goes beyond a critical threshold?

Answer 25

an abrupt change may occur from the ecosystems original state to a new one

Question 26

What is a positive feedback?

Answer 26

feedback mechanism increases original factor

Question 27

What is a negative feedback loop?

Answer 27

feedback mechanism reducing original factor

Question 28

When have the 3 main bleaching events occurred in the great barrier reef?

Answer 28

1998
2002
2016

Question 29

How much has coral calcification fallen by in the great barrier reef?

Answer 29

44%

Question 30

How does reducing albedo create a feedback loop?

Answer 30

warming climate cause ice and snow to melt, reducing amount of solar reflected into space, instead energy is absorbed by darker land and ocean causing more warming.

Question 31

What is peat?

Answer 31

a type of carbon rich soil found in wet environments

Question 32

How do increased forest and peat fires create a feedback loop?

Answer 32

Climate warms, peat dries, now able to catch fire, as carbon rich lots of CO2 released, adds to GHG effect, more warming and drying
Forests are the same (but changing rain patterns cause drought and drying)

Question 33

When have the main amazon rainforest droughts been?

Answer 33

2005
2018 (15yr of carbon emissions released)