Question

Briefly explain what the greenhouse effect is and how it affects all life on our planet. Additionally, what are two pieces of evidence introduced in class that demonstrate climate change is “real”?

Explain what happens with the total energy of the system at different trophic levels, indicating how much energy is transferred from one level to the next. Add a pesticide to your food chain and explain what happens with certain persistent chemical residues at different trophic levels.

Answer 1

1.

The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is one of the things that makes Earth a comfortable place to live.

Greenhouse effect, a warming of Earth's surface and troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere) caused by the presence of water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and certain other gases in the air. Of those gases, known as greenhouse gases, water vapour has the largest effect.

it is the natural process that warms the Earth's surface. The process is called the greenhouse effect because the exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation that warms the planet works in a similar way to a greenhouse

The following is a list of 10 steps YOU can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. ...
2. Use Less Heat and Air Conditioning. ...
3. Replace Your Light Bulbs. ...
4. Drive Less and Drive Smart. ...
5. Buy Energy-Efficient Products. ...
6. Use Less Hot Water. ...
7. Use the "Off" Switch. ...
8. Plant a Tree.

2.

The greenhouse effect is what keeps our planet warm enough to support life. Earth is said to be in a perfect "Goldilocks zone" away from the sun (not too cold, and not too hot), which enables life to thrive on the planet's surface

An expert in how climate change and biodiversity loss can affect human health, Bernstein, MPH '09, said that even a small global temperature increase could lead to troubling consequences, like rising sea levels, population displacement, disruption to the food supply, flooding, and an increase in infectious diseases

current level carbon dioxide level (parts per million) For millennia, atmospheric carbon dioxide had never been above this line, – 1950 level 280 260 160 800,000 700,000 600,000 200,000 100,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 years before today (0 = 1950) climate.nasa.gov

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

Global Temperature Rise

Warming Oceans.

Shrinking Ice Sheets

3.

The amount of energy at each trophic level decreases as it moves through an ecosystem. As little as 10 percent of the energy at any trophic level is transferred to the next level; the rest is lost largely through metabolic processes as heat.

4.

Pesticides affect the food chain because they reduce the biomass of primary consumers. This means there is less food available to secondary consumers

5.

Bioaccumulation and bioconcentration result in buildup in the adipose tissue of successive trophic levels: zooplankton, small nekton, larger fish, etc. Anything which eats these fish also consumes the higher level of mercury the fish have accumulated.