3.

Environment and Climate Change

• Energy transfer in ecosystems:

o Energy within an organism can be used to produce more body tissue that is to increase
its biomass (how much organic matter present in organism)
o Since the source of energy in most ecosystems is the sun, the rate at which producers
convert the sun’s energy into organic compounds will determine the flow of energy.
o Only a very small percentage of solar energy input from the sun is transferred into plant
material (1-3%).
o Gross primary productivity (GPP) in plants is the rate by which energy is incorporated into
the plants. It is measured in biomass/area/time or energy/area/time (KJ/m2/yr.). It
involves finding masses of representative samples of biomass & multiplying them to
represent the whole ecosystem.
o Plants use 25% of this accumulated energy for their own metabolic needs. They respire,
breaking down glucose to release energy in the form of ATP. The rest of energy is stored
in their body tissues. This stored energy is known as Net primary productivity (NPP).
o NPP = GPP – plant respiration
o NPP will depend on all the biotic and abiotic factors. E.g. latitude is a key factor because
the solar energy input within a specific area is lower at latitudes nearer the pole than
closer to the equator.
o If you combine the NPP of each type of ecosystem with the area of earth’s surface it
covers, you’ll see how much each type contributes to overall NPP of earth.
o The human population of the world is growing at a very high rate and even at its current
level humans are consuming up to 40% of NPP of the planet.

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• Energy transfer to higher trophic levels:
o The energy in plant material is available to herbivores, but relatively little of it ends up as
new animal material.
o Some of the energy is never assimilated but is lost as undigested and therefore unused
material in faeces.
o Much of assimilated energy is used to drive respiration and is then lost to the atmosphere
as heat energy.
o Some is lost as chemical energy in metabolic waste products and heat energy in the
urine of the animal.
o The energy used to make new animal biomass is known as secondary production.
o Similar energy losses occur between animal trophic levels up the food chain. The
proportion of energy used to make biomass compared with energy available to an
organism in trophic level below, is a measure of efficiency of energy transfer.
o Energy efficiency varies, but it is around 10% between producers and primary consumers
and 20-25% between consumers, depending on effort required to find food and the
digestibility of the food and metabolic rate in organism.
o For any trophic level, up to 99% of the energy may pass directly to the decomposers and
this will vary according to many factors e.g. temperature, water...etc.
o One of the main effects of inefficient transfer if energy through food chains and webs is to
limit the number of trophic levels.
o At higher trophic levels, organisms usually need to range over large distances, so, by the
fourth or fifth trophic level, it could take more energy to get food and a mate than is
needed for growth and reproduction.
o This explains the longer food chains in
ecosystems in tropical regions that receive
higher solar inputs than nearer the poles.
However complexity of food webs in tropical
systems makes it difficult to judge what is a
food chain exactly and therefore the
accuracy of this idea.
o Most food chains have 4-5 trophic levels
due to energy levels due to energy losses
between trophic levels so no energy
left to support further trophic levels.

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• Global warming- causes, effects and questions:
o Complex cycles have evolved which ensure that the chemical constituents of life are
continually cycled through ecosystems.
o These cycles involve biotic phase (inorganic ions are incorporated in the tissues of living
things) and abiotic phase (inorganic ions return to the non-living part of the ecosystem).
o The carbon cycle:
§ Carbon is essential in the formation of complex organic molecules as carbohydrates,
proteins, fats and nucleic acids, which are building blocks of life.
§ There’s large amounts of carbon dioxide present in atmosphere and dissolved in
lakes, rivers and oceans, which is absorbed and incorporated into complex
compounds in plants during photosynthesis.
§ Carbon passes to animals through food chains and returned to atmosphere or water
through respiration.

o Carbon sinks:
1. These are reservoirs where carbon is removed from atmosphere and locked up in
organic or inorganic compounds which are:
2. Removed from atmosphere by photosynthesis, stored in bodies of living organisms.
3. In soil in the form of humus.
4. In rocks as limestone and chalk, the fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
5. In oceans (50 times more dissolved inorganic carbon than in atmosphere). Carbon
dioxide dissolved in water is taken for photosynthesis by phytoplankton in surface
water of oceans.
6. Stored in calcium carbonate shells produced by different marine organisms and in
coral reefs.

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• Atlantic Ocean absorbs 23% of human-produced carbon. Southern Ocean (bigger) contains
9%. The differences are due to water temperature and currents in Atlantic Ocean which
move carbon-rich water downwards and bring more water up from depths to absorb more
carbon.
• The quantity of carbon stored in different carbon sinks is measured in petagrams (1015g) or 1
billion tones.
• 110 petagrams of carbon are removed each year from the atmosphere into bodies of living
organisms by photosynthesis and 50 petagrams are returned to atmosphere by respiration
and 60 petagrams in decomposition.
• The carbon becomes part of the organic material in soil before being released back to
atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
• The carbon cycle is self-regulating and amounts of carbon released in respiration and other
natural processes and absorbed in photosynthesis remain in balance, so carbon dioxide
levels remain steady.
• There’s a recent increase in production of carbon dioxide levels threatening the balance of
the carbon cycle due to human behaviours.
• There has been an enormous increase in the production of carbon dioxide by people since
the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. The industry related output of carbon
dioxide, combined with the development of the internal combustion engine for cars & other
vehicles is now threatening the balance of the carbon cycle.
• This could have major effects on climate, geology, and distribution of organisms.
• Global warming is a measurable increase in the Earth’s atmosphere temperature at the
surface of the earth.
• Climate is the average weather in a relatively large area over a long period of time.
Measurements used include mean temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity & atmospheric
pressure over a period of time.
• Weather is the conditions in the atmosphere at any time.
• Climate change describes a large-scale change in global or regional weather pattern that
occurs over a period of many years. (climate is what you expect, weather is what you get).
• Anthropogenic climate change: caused by people.
• Greenhouse gases:
o These are important gases to support life on earth including carbon dioxide, methane
and water vapour.

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 o They reduce heat loss from surface of earth in a way like how glass panels reduce heat
loss from a greenhouse (greenhouse effect).
o When radiation from sun reaches the earth, some is reflected into space by atmosphere
and by surface of earth and some absorbed by atmosphere.
o The radiation that we feel as heat is infrared. Infrared radiation reaching earth’s surface is
short wavelength. This is absorbed by surface of earth and then radiated from surface at
longer wavelength.
o Some of this radiation is absorbed and reradiated back to Earth’s surface by greenhouse
gases in atmosphere. This maintains the temperature at the surface of the earth at a
higher level for organisms that live on earth to be suitable for life.
o Why carbon dioxide levels increase:
§ Industry that burns fossil fuels for energy.
§ Homes and buildings use fossil fuels for heating.
§ Transport, electricity, and deforestation.

• The role of methane:

o It has a greater effect on warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, however much
less of it is produced than carbon dioxide.
o Its main sources are from the decay of organic material by some kinds of bacteria in wet
conditions and from digestion of herbivores such as deer and cows.
o It naturally breaks down high in the atmosphere in a series of reactions that eventually
form carbon dioxide and water molecules.

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 o Methane levels have risen by 150% since 1750 because of rice paddy fields are
waterlogged while the rice is growing. Bacteria in this waterlogged soil release methane
as they grow.
o Levels of rice production have been increasing to feed increasing population, hence
more methane is produced.
o The animals that humans depend on for food are also increasing, so the amount of
methane released from their digestion increases too.
• Looking at the evidence: All over the world the evidence is growing that:
1. Levels of carbon dioxide & other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing.
2. Mean global temperatures are increasing (global warming)
3. The global climate seems to be changing.
4. Extreme weather events such as flooding, droughts & hurricanes are increasing.
o Recent weather records suggest that the Earth’s surface is increasing.

o Most temperatures recorded are inferred from other data that can give an indication of
the temperature but not an exact value. These other sources of data are called
temperature proxies and the error lines (maximum and minimum lines on graph) indicate
how accurate these values are thought to be. The black middle line indicates the mean
values. Temperature proxies include tree rings, corals, ice cores and peat bog data.

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Temperature Proxies
1. Frozen isotopes:
o One widely used source of temperature proxies comes from Antarctic and Greenland ice
cores.
o Scientists drill deep down into the ice and then analyse the air trapped in different layers,
which provides a record which goes back thousands of years.
o Records of oxygen isotopes in melted ice (proportions of O18 to O16) reflect the air
temperature at the time ice layer was laid down and give scientists data in air
temperature. Atmospheric CO2 also measured.
o It appears from the following graph that about 140000 years ago the surface of earth was
about 6o cooler than today and earth was in an ice age.
o On the other hand, about 120000 years ago the climate was 1-2oC warmer than it is now.
o These warm periods are known as interglacials and since then we have had another ice
age and some more warming.

2. Dendrochronology:
o It is another temperature proxy also known as dendroclimatology.
o It is the dating of past events using tree ring growth.
o Trees increase in width as they get older by cell division of one particular layer in their
trunks.
o When there’s plenty of moisture and trees growing quickly (in early summer), these new
cells are large.
o As conditions get more difficult, new cells produced are smaller, eventually growth stops
for the year until the next spring.
o It is the contrast between the small cells at the end of one year and large ones
produced the next spring which gives the appearance of rings. So by counting the rings,
it’s possible to find an approximate age for a tree or piece of timber.

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o It is always approximate, because if conditions vary a lot during the year, a tree will
produce more than one growth ring.
o Dendroclimatology is the study of what dendrochronology can tell us about the climate
in the past.
o The problem with evidence from dendrochronology is that growth in trees is dependent
on many factors like light, temperature, CO2 levels and rainfall.
o One way of comparing the reliability of the data is by comparing the results from
different places.
o If the rings are similar then the climate was changing, not just in small area.
o Data from coral reefs can be used to confirm evidence from trees, as the proportions of
different isotopes taken up by coral vary as the sea temperature change.
o How to estimate the age of the tree:
1. The Center of the tree trunk has the oldest rings & the edge has the newest (count
outwards)
2. Number of rings indicate the age of the tree as each year a ring is formed
3. Thickness of the ring depends on conditions in this year (narrower rings mean cooler
temperature).
4. Take different samples from different heights, match them and only count the rings
once, if they overlap.
5. Rate of tree growth = height of the whole tree/total number of rings or the age

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3. Peat bog Records:
o It is another proxy.
o They are made of partly decomposed plant material, mainly sphagnum mosses.
o The peat is acidic, cool, and anaerobic preventing bacteria from decomposing organic
material. As a result pollen grains, moss spores and plant tissues are preserved in peat.
o By sampling cores of peat, we can look back in time at plants and mosses growing in
and around that area from hundreds and thousands of years ago.
o As types of plants that can grow in an area are affected by climate, the pollen/moss
record can give clear reflection of how climate has changed with time.
o If some plants are present, this indicates cool & wet conditions, if others this means drier
conditions.
• Increasing data reliability:
o Dendrochronology and peat bog dating are used to confirm radiocarbon dating in a
process known as wiggle matching. E.g. wood of known ages from ancient trees, or
samples of peat bog where the age is known from evidence of flood for example are
dated from radiocarbon measurements and results are compared to give a form of
calibration.
o This gives the scientists clear reference points which they can use to determine accuracy
of their estimations of age, making data more reliable.
o Data like this are used to produce the hockey stick graph.
o Scientists have recalculated figures using more than 1200 temperature proxy records,
without using tree –ring data and used 2 different statistical methods and found that the
hockey stick graph is reliable.

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• Evidence for increasing levels of carbon dioxide:
o Scientists found evidence for increasing levels of carbon dioxide through Mauna Loa
curve.
o A series of readings taken at regular intervals at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, where
the air is samples continuously at the top of four 7-metre-tall towers and an hourly
average of CO2 conc. is taken.
o Scientists believe that this area is representative of the air in the northern hemisphere as
the air is free from local pollutants.
o Records have shown that that level of CO2 has increased from 315.98 (parts per million by
volume of dry air) in 1959 to 408 in 2018.
o The annual fluctuations in CO2 levels are due to differences in fixation of CO2 by plants.
o Ice core data also show clear changes in CO2 conc.
• The global warming debate:
o Studies now suggest a clear correlation between increase in temperature and carbon
dioxide levels. Since the correlation is close, therefore it’s difficult to know whether
increases in greenhouse gases are causing increase in temperature or opposite.
o To say that there’s a causal relationship we need some mechanism that explains how
one factor changes the other.
o There’s a debate whether the causes of global warming are due to human activities that
produce CO2 or due to solar activity that affects cloud formation and therefore surface
temperature.
o However it was proven later that the sum of solar activities has produced cooling rather
than warming.
o After analysis of complicated computer models and many other evidence, there is a
causal link between global warming and carbon dioxide level, but it seems that global
warming is multifactorial.

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• Models of global warming and its effects:
o To investigate the relationship between carbon dioxide and earth’s temperature in the
past, scientists have developed huge computer models which have taken years to
develop.
o There are other factors to consider like rates of photosynthesis across the world, rate of
CO2 production by natural causes and exchange of CO2 between atmosphere and
oceans and effect of changing temperature on all of these.
o predicting the future:
§ We can extrapolate the data on greenhouse gases and use them in models to make
predictions about what will happen to temperature in the future.
§ These extrapolations can be used in other models to predict the long-term effects of
increased temperature on the environment.
§ There are limitations for those models because it’s impossible to tell the exact impact
of CO2 on global warming and to predict the impact of global warming on aspects
of world climate.
§ Extrapolations from past data can’t take in consideration unknown factors in future
including how current trends in use of resources and technologies may change.

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• Risk of flooding:
o Antarctic temperatures have increases by average 2.5oC in the past 50 years which is faster
than anywhere else in Earth which is an indication of global warming.
o The Antarctic ice contains around 70% of world’s fresh water. In the Arctic the sea ice has
been retreating by 2.7% each decade since 1978.
o As the ice melts the volume of water in seas and oceans of the world will increase causing
sea levels to rise and as the water gets warmer, its volume increases, increasing sea levels.
o The implications for human life as sea levels rise will take around 100 million lives.
• Climate change:
o Raising temperature affect weather and rainfall patterns. It’s impossible to link any one
weather event to global warming, but evidence suggest that there’s an increase in
extreme weather events linked to rise in global temperatures.
o If the current trends of less rainfall continue, people in Africa will be short of water for
their crops and to drink.
o In other areas rainfall will be higher than average leading to flooding, which causes
devastation and carries away the vital topsoil.
o The effect on organisms:
§ A 10oC rise in temperature will double the rate of an enzyme-controlled reaction
(temp. coefficient Q10 = 2) until the optimum temperature where enzymes are most
active and if the temperature increases beyond this point the enzyme starts to
denature and reaction rate falls.
§ As a result, increasing temperature could have different effects on rate of growth
and reproduction. If plants grow faster, they’ll take more CO2 reducing its levels and if
the opposite happens organisms will die.
§ If the insects involved in pollination are affected by changes in temperature,
flowering plants will be also affected & also animals feeding on them.
§ In higher latitudes, seasonal cycles affect life cycles. Global warming affects the
onset of seasons, affecting life cycles and distribution of species.
§ For some animals breeding earlier in the year may mean they can fit more than one
breeding cycle, so those populations will increase. Changes in temperature also
affect embryos and eggs development in some species.
§ Sperms structure and motility, and acrosome reactions maybe reduced at higher
temperatures.

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• Changes in species distribution:
o Animals can move easily than plants, so they can survive temperature changes easily, by
moving northwards when it is warm while becoming extinct in warmer southern end.
o If organisms involved in spread of disease are affected, patterns of world health could
change as well, especially insect-borne diseases as mosquitoes.
• Climate change and evolution:
o The climate changes such as the climate is becoming colder/wetter/drier are acting as
selection pressures, driving changes in allele frequency and so resulting in evolution
through natural selection.
o The changes are also resulting in much higher extinction rate because animals and plants
cannot adapt quickly to the change.
o When populations have a lot of genetic variation, it is likely that within the population there
will be combinations of alleles that will allow the species to adapt to the new conditions,
but in some populations, there is a low genetic variability as a result of previous
population bottlenecks, if their environment change as a result of global warming, they
have little chance of surviving.
o If an area becomes much wetter/drier, this will be selection pressure on the plants &
animals that live there e.g. many desert plants only grow & flower every few years when
rain falls. If the intervals between rain get longer, many seeds die before they get chance
to grow and reproduce, so the selection pressure will be towards alleles that enable the
seeds to survive longer.
o Organisms living in a very stable conditions e.g. tropical rainforests may have very little
genetic variation because they have not adapted to change. As the climate changes,
many species will face extinction, while others will adapt, evolve & survive.
o Global warming affects rainfall patterns. Some areas suffer from heavier rainfall, so
increasing floodings.
o Other areas experience no rain causing drought, so less crops are grown, so some animals
& plants may extinct and biodiversity decreases.
• Climate change and isolation:
o Allopatric speciation occurs when populations become physically or geographically
isolated.
o Global warming with its effect on sea levels will result in many populations becoming
isolated as low lying areas of countries become flooded & thousands of new islands are
formed. The plants and animals in these isolated populations will breed & selection pressure
will drive the populations in different directions to adapt to the new condition.

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 o Sympatric speciation occurs when organisms become reproductively isolated by
mechanical, behavioural or seasonal changes the climatic change is causing seasons to
change around the world. E.g. delay of rainy seasons / early arrival of warmer
temperatures in spring. Populations of the same species that live in different areas may
experience differences in their seasonal changes, until they can no longer reproduce.
o Climate change will mean different plants will grow. This may be due to a natural spread of
different species, or it may be driven by human actions. If people find a new crop will grow
as conditions change, they will grow it. This can also lead to speciation.
• What can be done?
o Decisions about energy usage and carbon emissions are usually made by politicians and
influenced by and many factors, such as their political perspective as well as scientific
evidence, lobbyists and pressure groups who will be biased by their own interests.
o Environmental campaigners and scientists are anxious that politicians tackle carbo dioxide
emissions to reduce impact of global warming.
o Many industrialists mainly in the field of petrochemicals have interest in promoting
alternative theories for global warming to avoid legislation that changes their industry.
o Politicians also make decisions based on short-term gain in the polls. As a result policies that
might prove unpopular with voters may be ignored.
o So, in the real world, conclusions reached from scientific evidence depend heavily on who
is reaching those conclusions, who has funded the original research and on financial and
political pressures that the decision-makers are working under.
• Planning for the future: to overcome consequences of global warming: (sustainability of
biological resources is dependent on human beings changing their behaviour).
1. Reducing human emissions by controlling the use of fossil fuels and making industrial
processes and car engines cleaner and less polluting.
2. Use Biofuels (sustainable resources that won’t run out like biofuels) to replace fossil fuels by
growing plants then use their products to make fuels, where plants take CO2 out of the air
as they grow and it’s released when they are used as fuels, leading to no net gain or loss of
CO2, but plants will consume much space and less food will be available.
3. Use other energy sources to reduce carbon emissions e.g. wind or nuclear.
4. Replanting trees to replace those that have been felled makes wood sustainable resource
and removes CO2 from atmosphere. (reforestation)

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