Climate as a condition for

life
Topics:
• Climate history
• Where are we?
• Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Litosphere
• Heat and energy
• Climate Change
Climate History
• Paleoclimate: Earth´s history, climate change and biological
implications
• What affects Earth´s climate?
• The story of Earth’s climate has been a story of massive changes.
Earth has been much warmer and much colder than it is today.
• These changes occur because the chemical composition of the
atmosphere has changed over time, varying the strength of the
greenhouse effect, and also because the amount of solar radiation
has varied over time.
• Scientists can therefore study rocks of various ages to understand the
history of Earth’s climate and apply those findings to present climatic
conditions.
Where are we? Plater Earth
• The sun is 93 million miles away (8 min. for
sunlight to reach the earth)
• The earth travels in an elliptical orbit around the
sun (closer in the winter than it is in the summer)
• The tilt of the earth varies from 21.1 to 34.5o
• This tilt causes the seasonal weather patterns
Where on Earth is Life Supported?
• The biosphere (atmosphere, hydrosphere, and
lithosphere)

Beth Stahl
 Atmosphere

Robert T. Reber
Composition of the Atmosphere
• 75% nitrogen
• 23% oxygen
• 407 ppm of carbon dioxide (and rising)
• < 1% water
• Carbon dioxide and water are the principal
“greenhouse gases” – methane also is important
• Heat in the atmosphere comes from reradiated energy
 Lithosphere

Weaver’s Needle
Superstitious Mountains, AZ

Robert T. Reber
The Lithosphere
• 46% oxygen
• 27% silicon
• 8% aluminum
• 5% iron
• Oxygen and silicon comprise the silicate minerals
(quartz, feldspars, micas, and clays)
• Aluminum and silicon (clay lattice structure in soils)
– source of most of the inorganic molecules
necessary for plant growth
 Hydrosphere

Robert T. Reber
The Hydrosphere
• 70 % of the surface of the earth is covered by
oceans
• Open oceans lack high productivity (Why?)
• Salts (dissolved minerals from the rock cycle)
Heat and Energy: The Global Heat Engine
• Sun-powered
• Energy to drive the biogeochemical cycles
• photosystems of photosynthesis (Ps)
• Energy to drive global climate and define weather
patterns
• Energy to shape the face of the land (erosion)
• Explains the large scale distributions of ecosystems
The Quantity of Energy (Reaching Earth)
• 30% of the energy is reflected back into space
• 25% of the energy is reflected by the atmosphere
• 5% of the energy is reflected from the surface of the
earth
• ~20% of the energy is absorbed by the atmosphere
• About one half of the energy hits the earth (45% is
absorbed by the surface)
The Quality of Energy (Reaching Earth)

• Incoming energy: drives photosynthesis

• Incoming energy: produces the infrared
wavelengths that heats the surface
• Conversion from the solar constant to ultimately
plant biomass is very inefficient
• Plants utilize red and blue wavelengths
The Quality of Energy
• Visible light (400 – 700nm)
• PAR – Photosynthetically Active Radiation
• UV-A and UV-B
• Near infrared and far infrared
VISIBLE LIGHT SPECTRUM
The Climate Rules
• Weather is an event – climate is a long-term
integration
• The more nearly the sunlight hits the surface of
the earth at a right angle – more energy is
transferred per unit area (irradiance is greatest at
the equator)
• Land heats up and cools down more quickly than
does water
• Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air
The Climate Rules cont…
• Warm air rises and cold air sinks
• Heat rises (low pressure) – warmer and wetter
• Air sinking (high pressure) – cooler and drier
Orographic Precipitation
Thermal Inversions
• Normal conditions: temperature decreases going
up in altitude in the troposphere
• Inversion - air temperature rises as elevation
increases
• Topographically-induced inversions, climatic-
induced (cool nights, high pressure: subsiding and
warming)
• Implications for air pollution
 Climate Change
A changing climate has a range of potential ecological, physical and health impacts,
including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves); sea-
level rise; altered crop growth; and disrupted water systems. The most extensive source of
analysis on the potential impacts of climatic change can be found in the 5th
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

• https://youtu.be/wbR-
5mHI6bo
Final ideas
• Earth’s climate is complex and dynamic, but is mainly influenced by the amount of solar radiation hitting
Earth and the composition of the atmosphere. 

• Large changes in climate are controlled by the concentration of greenhouse gases (most importantly
carbon dioxide). 

• Changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun cause changes in Earth’s climate that are superimposed on the
larger signal driven by greenhouse gases. 

• Carbon dioxide is increasing at rates more than 100 times greater than at any time in the past 800,000
years. This time span is more than four times greater than the time span of the existence of Homo
sapiens. 

• The concentration of carbon dioxide is now higher than at any time in human existence. 
• • Humans are a major cause of global change. There are also
nonhuman factors that cause global change, but most of the global
changes occurring today are caused by human activities.

• • Understanding how components and processes in the Earth system

interact is necessary for analyzing, interpreting, and predicting the
causes and effects of global change
Sources:
• https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions
• https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3139/six-questions-to-help-you-under
stand-the-6th-warmest-year-on-record
/
• https://
www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/paleoclimate-history-ch
ange
• https://www.ipcc-data.org/guidelines/pages/glossary/glossary_r.html
• Prof. Rob Reber. Taylor University