GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming



Global Warming

Introduction

Carbon cycle is defined as the movement of Carbon between the living and non-living components of the global environment. Carbon enters the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide released by volcanic eruptions. Green plants (and some Bacteria) convert carbon dioxide into Carbohydrates by the process of Photosynthesis. Respiration, by photosynthesizers and those organisms which consume them, oxidizes carbon compounds to release energy, releasing carbon dioxide gas as a reaction product. Overall, the amount of carbon dioxide 'fixed' by photosynthesis is approximately equal to the amount released by respiration (Yeh, 2006, 11).

Answer 1)

C)

Global mean sea level (GMSL) increased by an average rate of 1.8 mm/year during the 20th century. The IPCC (2007) reports a high confidence that this rate has been increasing. The IPCC estimated that GMSL increased 3.1 mm/year from 1993 to 2003, although this change is not spatially uniform worldwide. Nicholls and Cazenave (2010) estimated a GMSL rise of approximately 3.3 mm/year in the period 1992 to 2010.

The rise of sea level poses exacerbated threats in coastal aquifers undergoing land subsidence and decreased riverine sediment output to estuaries, while its threat is diminished in pre-glaciated areas undergoing isostatic rebound. Eight long-term tidal records on the coast of California exhibit increases in mean sea level (MSL) ranging from 0.84 mm/year (Los Angeles) to 2.22 mm/year (La Jolla), while one station shows a decrease in MSL of -0.48 mm/year (CDWR 2006) during the 20th century.

Sea water intrusion is measured in this work by the landward advance of the 10,000 mg/L iso-salinity line (measured from the coastline defined by a baseline sea level defined in the section “Elevation Datums and Coordinate Systems”), a concentration of salts that renders groundwater unsuitable for human use. Because the position of the 10,000 mg/L iso-salinity line differs across the landscape, its leading position landward was chosen as the primary variable of analysis herein. Let the advance of sea water intrusion so defined be denoted by f(Q,R), where f is a function of sea-level rise (R) and groundwater extraction (Q). Let R = R0 denote the baseline sea level from which future rise in sea level is measured and Q = Q0 be the baseline groundwater extraction relative to which future groundwater is measured. The baseline sea water intrusion is f(Q0,R0). If the function f were known, the change in sea water intrusion (?fQ+R) caused by a change in groundwater extraction (Q = Q0 + ?Q) and a change in sea-level rise (R = R0 + ?R) would be:

Answer 2)

A)

I) Five Major Carbon Reservoirs:

Reservoirs of carbon in the ocean (blue labels)

In biomass

In the sea on land (tan and green labels)

In the atmosphere (light blue label) and

In anthropogenic emissions

II)

In biological cycle can be found in bio mass. When herbivores eat the plants, they acquire the carbon stored in plant tissues. Much of the food (carbon compounds) eaten is used up for the herbivore's life processes and given off as carbon dioxide in respiration but some is stored in animal ...