Post on 12-Jan-2016
CHANGING OCEANS
Ice core Data C02 and temp
Ice core data has measured C02 concentrations going back 650,000 years.
Tipping pt.When climate change moves beyond of our controlLevels of C02 Pre-industrial 280 ppm Dec 2008 392 ppm
Tipping point 400 ppm C02
391
400
350280
Melankovitch Cycle 100,000 year cycle
Greenhouse gases cause warming A
vera
ge s
urfa
ce t
empe
ratu
re c
hang
e (°
C)
Meehl et al., Journal of Climate (2004)Meehl et al., Journal of Climate (2004)
The Arctic
Polar Ice Arctic
Ice loss = area twice the size of France
Map-Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
.
SOURCE EARTH OBSERVATORY
Dark orange=thick ice
A “Positive feed back” that Speeds warming.
Ice reflects light and heat
Bare surface absorbs heat
Greenland Ice Loss
Ice melt
Pink = area of ice melt in Greenland. Land based ice melt will raise sea level
Greenland Ice Loss
picture: global warming.com
tunnel
Melt water Lake
Tundra Tundra
Shrubs and grasses replaced By lakes, ponds, & puddles
Methane release
Warming and ice loss in Antarctica
Temp 2-3around fringes colder in interior (NASA)
Loss of Wilkins ice shelf 2008 (Natl Snow & Ice data center)
Discovery of melt around all of Antarctica, 2009.
Melting Glaciers Argentina - Patagonia
Uppsala Glacier
1928
2004 Photo ig Texas
PERU
Photo: Lonnie Thompson Ohio State U
La Paz Bolivia
Sea level rise drowning low elevation islands
Tuvalu- Pacific islands only A few feet above sea level
MaldivesHigh tide in Tuvalu
OCEAN DEAD ZONES
Upwelling along west coast of US
MAJOR OCEAN UPWELLING ZONES
Ocean circulation
Water cools and sinks off Greenland; this force helps drive the current.Fresh water floats, disrupting the current. (Dark Blue = Deep currents)
• Melt flushes fresh water into the north Atlantic and slows the Gulf Stream. Fresh water floats on salt water and cancels the sinking that drives the Gulf Stream. This has slowed Gulf Streams by 30%.
• Possible threat to Northern Europe’s climate.
Changing Oceans
SURFACE CURRENTS
Davidson’s Current Winter wind driven
Ocean pollution
The Great Ocean Garbage Patches
Oil spills
Millions of gallons of oil / year washes into the oceans
Ocean acidity The other C02 problem
Pteropod
Ocean Acidity from C02
Corals with calcium
Cups
Coccolithophores
Coral reefs under stress:
.
Natural cycles and how they are changing
EL NINO- sloshes warm waters to the west coast region of the Americas.
La Nina - cools the Pacific. La nina is an stronger expression of the ‘normal conditions’ seen in this pic.
Animal distributions change during
El Ninos
Sucker tooth ringSucker tooth ring
Range expansion of the red devil during el Nino of 2009
• 1997 El Niño: Monterrey Bay, Oregon coast
• 1998-1999: No sightings
• 2000: Monterrey Bay
• 2004 & 2005: As far north as Sitka Alaska
• 2006-2008: Increasingly widespread on West Coast
• 2009: Exploded!!!! to BC-AK border
• 2010: few squid in the northern
regions
Photos by Paul Bentley, NWFSC
Predator study off the mouth of the Columbia River
2,000 squid (~40,000 lbs) in a 30 minute tow!
Ocean Oscillations
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation AMO
A longer term (40 – 80) year cycles of warm or cold conditions in the North Atlantic which can impact regional weather patterns and is believed to also impact the Arctic.
Graph shows period of temps above average, and cool periods of temps below average.Orange represents years of warm temperatures and blue years of cool temps of Atlantic waters. 2012 the Atlantic is in its warm phase the Pacific in its cool phase.
AMO with gradual temp increase
SOURCE: DATA FROM US GEOLOGIC SERVICE , USED IN WIKIPEDIA
Pacific Decadal Oscillation PDO
2. Cont. Coho survival
is highest during cool regimes (-PDO)
Peterson and Schwing (2003)
PDO
California zooplankton
Northern copepods
OPI coho survival
Arctic Oscillation
SOURCE National snow and ice data
center
Source NASA earthObservatory. 2009Colors Show cold and Warm temps.
Positive Negative
N Pole high alt. wind patterns
Positive negative
Sea Level Rise
Greenland Ice Loss
Ice melt
Pink = area of ice melt in Greenland. Land based ice melt will raise sea level
Sea level rise drowning low elevation islands
Tuvalu- Pacific islands only A few feet above sea level
(Maldives airport 10 inches above high tide.)
High tide in Tuvalu
People are users of fossil fuels. Our use is the basis for many of the issues presented
here.
• Everyone has a carbon footprint,
(2009) 81 million people per year were added to the planet. Current world population is 7 billion. by 2050 9 billion predicted
India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, US, Bangladesh, Zaire, and Iran had the most population increase- in that order! (Source - U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division)
10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce every 1 calorie of food eaten
US Population growthAll people use energy and contribute CO2
Average US family size 3 kids
308million
500million
End