Past Climate Change

Coring Glacial Ice

Ice Core Data

Pollen core data collection

Pollen Core Data

Distribution of North American Trees in past 16,000 years

Black-tailed prairie dog

Northern bog lemming

Eastern chipmunk

Global Ice Coverage Last Ice Age

Rainforests in: a. Glacial period, b. Inter-glacial period

Globalcarboncycle

Change in Average Global Temperature

Statistics and climate change

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e0vj-0imOLw

Surface temperature trends from 1800-2009

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2011/oct/20/berkeley-earth-climate-change-video

Model predictions of global temperature increase

Predicted surface change 1960-2060

Current distributions of biomes

Predictions for biomes after global warming

The Earth Ice Free

Global Ice Coverage Last Ice Age

Will species be able to survive current climate change?

• Maybe

• Maybe not

New Complications with Climate Change

1. Current species and populations are already stressed by habitat loss and environmental degradation

2. Habitat loss will make it harder for species to migrate to new areas

3. Global temperature may increase to temperatures that are much greater than species experienced in the past

4. Rate of global climate change is probably faster than in geologic past

Pikas may run out of mountaintop

Habitat Loss

Orange County, California

Habitat Loss

• Habitat is the physical and biological environment used by an individual, a population or a species

• Habitat degradation is the process by which habitat quality for a given species is diminished

• Habitat loss occurs when the habitat quality for a given species is so low that the environment can no longer support the species

Ecosystem Loss

• Ecosystem is a group of organisms and their physical environment

• Ecosystem degradation occurs when alterations to an ecosystem degrade or destroy habitat for many of the species that constitute the ecosystem

• Ecosystem loss occurs when the changes to an ecosystem are so great and so many species typical of that ecosystem (especially dominant species) are lost that the ecosystem switches from one type to another

What are the main processes that degrade habitat and ecosystems?

Processes that degrade habitat and ecosystems

• Contamination/Pollution

• Human built structures

• Soil erosion

• Changing fire regimes

• Changing water use and hydrology

• Deforestation

• Desertification

• Draining wetlands

Copper Basin, Tennessee

Copper Basin, Tennessee

1926 1939

Copper Basin today

Copper Basin – Superfund site

Restoration of Burra Burra Pit, Copper Basin

Mid-1990s Mid 2000s

Copper mine tailings, Butte, Montana – largest Superfund site in America

Mine tailings outskirts of Sudbury, Ontario

Restoration of Sudbury

Air pollution – Mexico City

Extent of Acid Precipitation

Rhine River Basin

Healthy Coral Reef

Dying Coral Reefs

Bleached coral Silted out reef

DDT use in 1950s

DDT inZimbabwe

Thin Egg Shells from DDT