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Fundamentals of Physical Geography 2Nd Edition Petersen Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
Fundamentals of Physical Geography 2Nd Edition Petersen Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
Fundamentals of Physical Geography 2Nd Edition Petersen Solutions Manual Full Chapter PDF
MICROTHERMAL, POLAR,
AND HIGHLAND CLIMATE
REGIONS: CLIMATE CHANGE
Chapter Outline
MICROTHERMAL CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE
REGIONS Past Climates
Humid Microthermal The Recent Ice Age: The Pleistocene
Generalizations Methods for Revealing Past
Humid Continental Climates Climates
Subarctic Climate Causes of Climate Change
POLAR CLIMATE REGIONS GLOBAL WARMING
Tundra Climate Future Climates
Ice-Sheet Climate Recommendations for the Future
Human Activity in Polar Regions
HIGHLAND CLIMATE REGIONS
The Nature of Mountain Climates
Adaptation to Highland Climates
Learning Objectives
• Describe the major characteristics of each microthermal (cold winter) and polar
climate.
• Locate the general areas of each microthermal and polar climate on a world map
and explain the major factors that control their global distribution.
• Describe the major vegetation types and human adaptations related to each
microthermal and polar climate.
• Explain why highland climates are so variable and what factors control the
nature of a highland climate at a given time and location.
49
• Explain why global climates have changed over the past few million years and
how earth scientists have documented these changes.
• Appreciate why it is difficult to determine the cause of an Ice Age and recall
what hypotheses have been suggested.
• Discuss the nature of recent global warming and some of the impacts it would
likely have on several different Earth environments.
• Understand the results of extensive research into the relationships between
human activities and global warming.
Lecture Outline
I. Chapter Preview
II. Microthermal Climate Regions
A. Humid Microthermal Generalizations
B. Humid Continental Climates
1. Comparison of Hot-Summer and Mild-Summer Climates
2. Seasonal Changes
3. Land Use in Humid Continental Regions
C. Subarctic Climate
1. High Latitude and Continentality
2. A Limiting Environment
III. Polar Climate Regions
A. Tundra Climate
B. Ice-Sheet Climate
C. Human Activity in Polar Regions
50
IV. Highland Climate Regions
A. The Nature of Mountain Climates
B. Adaption to Highland Climates
V. Climate Change
A. Past Climates
B. The Recent Ice Age: The Pleistocene
C. Methods for Revealing Past Climates
D. Causes of Climate Change
1. Orbital Variations
2. Changes in the Ocean
3. Changes in Landmasses
4. Impact Events
5. Changes in the Atmosphere
6. Atmospheric Gases
VI. Global Warming
A. Future Climates
B. Recommendations for the Future
1. On a Personal Scale
Summary
• Microthermal and polar climates occupy vast areas of the world and vary greatly
in both temperatures and precipitation.
• A number of mechanisms control the temperature and precipitation regimes of
microthermal and polar climates.
• Microthermal and polar climates are found in approximately the same locations
(i.e., with respect to latitudes and coastal positions) on most of the continents.
• Highland climates are often considered as one group because of the difficulty in
distinguishing among the various local climates (microclimates) created by
mountainous environments.
• Plants, animals, and humans must adapt to live in distinctive highland climate
types through various methods.
• Global climates have changed considerably over the past few million years and
Earth scientists continue to document these variations.
• Many hypotheses exist regarding the causes of the most recent Ice Ages, but
there is general agreement that global warming today is related in large part to
human activities.
50
Teaching Tips – Discussion Topics
• The concept of Milankovitch cycles are often difficult for students to grasp.
Animations such as the following may be helpful:
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec/GlobalWarming/Tutorials/Milankovitch/
• Another exercise for illustrating the Milankovitch cycles involves working
through the position of Earth relative to the sun physically. Have students “act
out” orbits with different eccentricities, different tilt angles of Earth’s axis, and
precession using a reference as a guide.
• Lead an in-class debate about climate change. Have students divide into two
random groups. One will advocate for the view that the recent global climate
changes are largely a result of manufactured causes and an aberration of larger
geological cycles, and the other will advocate that these changes are in line with
the overall trajectories of climate variation in Earth’s history. After the debate has
concluded, discuss potential outcomes of climate change, both locally and
around the world.
• Now that the students have learned about global atmospheric circulation and
ocean circulation, discuss how circulation affects the distribution of
microthermal and polar climates. Compare circulation maps with climate zone
maps and see if students can find any patterns.
2. The warmest month is above 10°C (50°F) and the coldest month is below 0°C (32°F)
and usually has year-round precipitation (with a winter drought in Asia).
Mesothermal climates have hot summers; microthermal climates have mild
summers [p. 196; Table 8.1]
3. Subarctic regions are affected by strong high pressure systems (such as the Siberian
high). Distance from oceans also affects the amounts of precipitation found in these
climates. [pp. 199-200]
4. The year-round influence of polar anticyclones, ice cover, and elevation distinguish
ice sheet climates from the warmer tundra climates, which are usually located closer
to coastlines. [pp. 202-203]
51
5. Little if any life can survive in an ice-sheet climate, but tundra climates can contain
mosses, lichens, grasses, flowering plants, migratory birds, and insects. These plants
hug the ground surface with shallow root systems and die or go dormant during the
severe winters. [pp. 202-205]
6. Elevation exposure and aspect affect the temperatures, winds, insolation, and
orographic precipitation found in highland climates. Nearby lowlands may have
significantly different climate characteristics. [pp. 206-208]
7. Climate conditions of the late Pleistocene and Holocene can be derived using
radiometric techniques such as oxygen-isotope analysis. [pp. 210-211]
8. Major causes of climate change are orbital variations, changes in Earth's atmosphere,
changes in the ocean, changes in landmasses, and any combination of these.
Milankovitch calculated the orbital variation and timed them to major glacial
advances. [pp. 212-215]
10. Continued greenhouse warming will cause melting of ice sheets, rising sea levels,
and latitudinal shifting in weather systems. All of these factors taken together will
affect many areas of the globe. [pp. 220-222]
1. a. EF
b. ET
c. Dwa
d. Dfa
e. Cfa
2. a. Eismitte, Greenland
b. Point Barrow, Alaska
c. Beijing, China
52
d. Chicago, Illinois
e. New York, New York
3. New York on the east coast is under maritime influences, but Chicago represents a
station influenced by continentality. The lower precipitation total and the higher
summer temperatures are the major differences.
Figure 8.3 The primary differences are related to the greater continentality and
modified monsoon circulation associated with Shenyang located on the
Asian continent. [p. 197]
Figure 8.6 Mining, hunting, fishing, and settlement for strategic reasons best explain
why limited numbers of people occupy the subarctic. [p. 200]
Figure 8.7 The forests of Siberia are so distant from markets and the forest products
are so expensive to ship that they have little commercial value. [p. 201]
Figure 8.9 The Southern Hemisphere has very little land that is subject to a tundra
climate. [p. 203]
Figure 8.10 Location in high latitudes, subsidence and divergence of the polar
anticyclone, and proximity to coasts. [p. 204]
53
Figure 8.12 M.A. Class discussions.
Figure 8.14 Temperature and precipitation amounts may be similar and, therefore,
similar types of vegetation. [p. 207]
Figure 8.16 Students should note the flag trees in the background with branches on
the left side removed by wind stress. This indicates wind direction from
left to right in the photograph. [p. 208]
Figure 8.17 Most settlement was in the upper portions of the tierra templada zone and
the lower portions of the tierra fria. [p. 209]
Figure 8.18 Because the ice in a glacier, like water, flows under the pull of gravity. The
glacial ice is flowing downhill. [p. 210]
Figure 8.21 Colder currents bring cooler air masses; warm currents bring warmer air
masses. [p. 213]
Figure 8.23 Volcanic eruptions can melt ice caps and create mud slides, poison gases
can kill populations nearby, and the lava flow and ash flows can bury
entire villages. [p. 215]
Figure 8.24 The second year after the eruption. [p. 215]
Figure 8.29 The largest change is in Asia, and the smallest change is in Australia.
54
Figure 8.30 M.A.
55
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name of it, but a traveller figured in it, who took his servant with him
to the heart of Africa. The latter, who was passionately fond of
travelling, and took an eager interest in all the doings and
adventures of explorers, made but one request, and that was to be
allowed to change his name of Joseph to that of Mohammed Ben
Abdullah. “It was more euphonious,” he said, and the audience
roared with laughter.
Well, Joseph was quite right, and if Barth had not done as he did,
the negroes and Tuaregs would never have remembered his
European name, it would never have become engraved on their
memories, it would never have been transmitted to their
descendants, and I should not have been able to solve all difficulties,
however great, and emerge safely from every situation, however
embarrassing, by the simple words “I am the son, or rather the
nephew of Abdul Kerim.”
It is impossible to admire too much the lofty, upright character of
Barth, which so impressed all with whom he came in contact on his
journey, that nearly half a century after his death the mere fact of his
having traversed a district—poor as he was, and exposed to all
manner of dangers, the friendship of Beckay his only safeguard—
should be enough to open the way for a pretended relation of his.
How few travellers could boast of having done as much, even in
modern times. Too many explorers have indeed, after forcing their
way through a country against the will of the natives, left behind
them a legacy of increased difficulty and danger to their successors.
I was very anxious to secure the services of a political agent with
a thorough knowledge of the country, and the language of the
Tuaregs. I wished to send him, if I could find him, in advance of our
party to take letters to the chiefs, or to plead our cause with them.
Acting on the advice of Hamadi, I chose a certain Sidi Hamet,
distantly connected with the Kuntas, and then employed in the
Custom House at Timbuktu, under one Said, the interpreter of the
Post-Office.
I must do this justice to Said, he yielded with anything but a good
grace to the employment of his subordinate on our service, and did
more to dissuade him than to further our wishes. We had to invoke
the aid of Commandant Rejou, and later, at Tosaye, Sidi Hamet
piteously entreated me to let him go back, and I expect Said’s
objection to his joining us had something to do with his faltering.
However, I forgive him with all my heart. Sidi Hamet was the
interpreter’s right hand, his chief source of information on every
subject, and he found it hard work to fulfil his own duties, even those
of an interpreter, without him.
On the 16th I went back to spend a day at Kabara, where I had
invited all the notables of Timbuktu to come and listen to the
wonders of the phonograph. It was an exhibition which long dwelt in
the memory of those present. Amongst the most attentive listeners
were the two sons of the chief of the Eastern Kuntas, who lives at
Mabrok. I felt sure that the rumour of the extraordinary things I had
done would precede me.
Commandant Rejou had already warned Sakhaui, or Sarrawi,
chief of the Igwadaren Aussa, the first Tuareg tribe we should meet
on our way down the river, of our approach. In the evening two
envoys from this chief arrived with a missive, which it was almost
impossible to decipher, but from which, in spite of its ludicrous
phraseology, we managed to make out two things, one being that
Sakhaui had no desire to see us, the other that he was very much
afraid of us.
We did our best to reassure and impress the messengers, and
finally succeeded in convincing them that we had no evil intentions
with regard to the Igwadaren, and armed with a fresh document from
us they set off to return to their chief.
Meanwhile Sidi Hamet, who had been well coached in what he
was to say and do, had started on his way to Aluatta, to ask him to
meet us at Kagha, a little village on the right bank about thirty-one
miles from Timbuktu. For the first time I now announced my
pretended relationship with Abdul Kerim, taking myself the Arab
name of Abd el Kader, or the servant of the Most High.
This mission with the Kuntas accomplished, Sidi Hamet was to go
to the Igwadaren of Sakhaui and wait for us.
Having settled everything to the best of our ability, visited the
boats, and repaired any little damage which had been done by the
way, we had now only to give ourselves up to the current of the river
and to the will of God.
It was not without a certain emotion that, on Wednesday, January
22, we started from Kabara, seen off by all our brother officers of the
garrison of Timbuktu, and escorted to our boats by a great crowd of
natives, who, with more or less enthusiasm, invoked the protection of
Allah on our behalf.
WE LEAVE KABARA.
AT TIMBUKTU.
DROVE OF OXEN.
CHAPTER III