Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Earth life support systems (pt3) - Coggle Diagram
Earth life support systems (pt3)
Research and monitoring
Remote sensing equipment such as the Earth Observing System measures microwave energy radiated from the surface. This can be used to scan ice sheets and calcualte the depth of oceans.
ICESat 2
This is a saterlite the calculates the height of objects on earth to create a global portrate.
It has four missions:
Measure melting ice sheets and investiagte how this effects sea level rise.
Measeure and investgate the changes in ice sheet mass and glaciers.
Estimate and study ice thickness.
Measures the heights of vegitation in forests and other ecosystems.
OCO-2
This is a system that can monitor CO2 levels by measuring the effectivness of CO2 absorbtion.
NPP
NPP can be measured by monitoring plant growth, this infomation can be used to support REDD+ in preventing deforestion.
Links between the carbon and water cycle
In the atmosphere
CO2 is exchanged between the pedosphere, biosphere and atmosphere through the processes of combustion, respiration, decomposition and photosynthesis.
These processes either release water while they take place or need water to take place.
CO2 is moved between the atmosphere and oceans thorugh phytoplankton photosynthesis.
In the oceans
Increased CO2 in the atmosphere increases ocean tempretures.
Warmer oceans absorb less oceans.
Warmer oceans increase evaportation and increase water vapour in the atmosphere.
Increased sea temps lead to thermal expansion and sea rise.
In the cyrosphere
Increased CO2 levels lead to higher global tempretures and a movement of water from the cyro to hydrosphere.
Melting of permafrost leads to the release of CO2 and methane making the situation worse.
In the biosphere
Increases in CO2 lead to warmer tempretures, this reduces the area covered by the cryosphere and enables more photosynthesis.
Increased fauna and flora increases water demand.
Impacts of warming and cooling planet
Water cycle
Long term impacts of cooling climate
A cooling climate will lead to sea levels falling by as much as 130m.
Cyrosphere stores increase (1/3 of land mass is covered by ice durring ice ages).
Less water stored the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
Larger cryosphere means there is less room for the biosphere (meaning it will shrink).
Long term impacts of warming climate
Warmer atmosphere increases evapotransipiration, increasing water stored in the atmosphere (this can create a positive feedback loop, leading to further tempreture rises).
More extreme weather events as increased water vapour in the atmosphere means more latent heat released in the clouds.
Increased water vapour will lead to an increase in precipitation, this can pose a flood risk in:
Urban areas.
Floodplains.
Deforested areas.
Warmer tempretures will lead to melting icecaps and this can lead to:
Rising sea levels.
More water stored in the hydrosphere (and less stored in the cryosphere).
Increased inflitration and groundwater stores due to less land being covered by the cryosphere.
Carbon cycle
Long term impacts of cooling climate
Cooler climate leads to more phytoplankton and increased carbon sequestration by them into the oceans.
Increased carbon stored in the hydrosphere.
Can lead to ocean acidification.
A cooler climate will lead to a larger cryosphere and a smaller biosphere, this reduces NPP and photosynthesis.
Cryosphere will cover the pedosphere, this prevents the release of carbon to the atmosphere.
Long term impacts of warming climate
Thawing permafrost leads to an increase in the exchange of carbon from the pedosphere and cyrosphere to the atmosphere.
Warming climates will lead to an increase in NPP and photosynthesis, increasing the size of the biosphere (boosted by the shrinking of the cryosphere).
Increased size of the biosphere = increased decomposition and an increase in carbon flowing between the biosphere and pedosphere.
How can human activities causes changes in water stores
Water extraction
Can reduce water flows within rivers (in the river Kenet river flows have droped by 10-14%).
Can lead to aquifers becoming contiminated by saltwater.
Can lead to aquiferes drying up.
Scale
Local scale as water extraction will only impact the aquiferes and rivers near where water is being removed.
Mitigation
In the UK the Habitats and Birds Directive have created a network of improtant ecosystems.
There are plans in the K to return 50% of sights of special sceintific interest to a favourable condition.
When granting new licenses require limits to how much water is extracted.
Irrigation
Irrigation already uses 70% of the worlds freshwater supply withdrawn by humans and this could increase as populations grow.
Can reduce river flows as water is diverted away from rivers to farmlands.
Can lead to salinistion of the soil, making it unworkable.
Management
Deepening roots so as to increase water absorbtion by pants so less irrigation is used.
Reduce the growing of high water crops.
Industry
Industry uses around 20% of freshwater withdrawn by humans.
In Europe 40% of water extraction is done to provide water to industry.
EDCs have seen an increase in water demand as industries have grown.
Mitigation
Move away from water heavy manufacturing processes.
Reduce water waste (reuse water).
Livestock
It takes around 2,400 gallons of water to raise livestock.
Increased demand globally is driving an increase in water extraction.
Mitigation and management
Reduce meat consumption.
Reseasch ways to reduce water consumption of livestock.
This could include lab grown meat.
Population
Increasing population is leading to hyper-urbanistion which reduces evapotransipirtation (because there is less greenary in urban areas), increases surface run-off and reduces lag time through systems desigened to move water away from urban areas.
Mitigation
Urban greening
Promote urban to rural migration.
Global management strategies for protecting the carbon cycle
Wetland restoration
Wetland restoration
-- this is the process of converting fresh and salt water marshes, peatlands, floodplains and mangroves back to their orginal state.
9% of the world is covered in wetlands, but they store 35% of terrestial carbon.
Mangroves can store 50 times the amount of carbon that TRFs can.
660 million people depend on healthy wetlands for fishing and aquaculture (a further 226 million jobs are connected to wetland based tourism).
Problems facing wetlands
Vast amounts of wetlands have been drained to make way for agriclture and urbanistation.
Around 50% of the world's wetlands have already been destroyed.
Mini-case study
In the Canadian province of Praire, wetland restoration could enable the sequestration of 364,000 tonnes of carbon a year.
Aforestion
REDD
This is a UN scheme in which ACs will pay EDCs/LIDCs to maintian, replant and use sustianably their TRFs.
The scheme aims to work with local farmers, indigenous populations, local communities and the national government to protect rainforests.
For the scheme to half emissions by 2020 it would cost $38 billion.
Vietnam
In Veitnam REDD is enabling local communities to log and collect herbs sustainabily (improving their socio-economic stnading) whilist protecting the TRFs.
The ARPA scheme in Brazil is set to offset 430 million tonnes of carbon.
International agreements
Kyoto protocol 1997
This was the first legally binding climate agreement.
Successes
Paved the way for future climate agreements.
By 2012 carbon emissions in the EU were 22% lower then they were in 1990.
The clean development mechanism began helping 75 EDCs and LIDCs developing less polluting technology.
Failure
It was slow to bring any meaningful action.
By 2015 global carbon emissions had risen by 65%, mainly driven India and China.
Carbon trading systems were complex and didn't reduce carbon emissions.
The only major emmitters of carbon to sign the protocol were the EU and Japan.
2015 Paris Climate Agreement
Countries agree to lower CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 compared to their 2010 levels.
Aimed to cap global tempreture rise by 2oc.
Emissions targets are set and reviewed every 5 years.
$100 billion were committed to decarbonise EDC and LIDC economies through the Climate Fund, but only $10 billion were actually committed.
It is believed that $70 billion a year is needed to decarbonise the developing world.
COP 26
Changed the tempreture rise goal from 2oc to 1.5oc.
CO2 emissions were set to be reduced by 45% by 2050.
Countries reaffiremed their commitement to the Climate Fund.
137 countries agreed to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
COP27
$230 million were committed to a loss and damages fund.
UK commited £5 to the Santiago network (a system to connect developing countries to businesses that can support them tackling climate change).
Sustainable agriculture
Examples of unstainable agriculture:
Overgrazing.
Overcultivation.
Intenseification.
Sustainable agricultural practises
Land crop management
This a system of management that includes multiple different methods of sustainable agriculture.
Zero tillage
-- this is the process of growing plants without plowing the soil. This helps store organic material in the soil and helps prevents oxidisation.
Polyculture
-- this is the process of growing trees among the crops as this helps provide ground cover and prevents soil erosion.
Contour ploughing and terracing
-- this helps reduce run-off and erosion.
Livestock management
By improving animal feed and mixing methane inhibitors in with the cows food this can reduce methane production.
This is important because every cow can produce 500 litres of methane a day.
Manure management
-- this is the process of storing methane in anerobic contianers and capturing the methane released to be used as clean energy.
Global management stratgries for the water cycle
Forestary
Amazon Regional Protected Areas (ARPA)
In order to protect its rainforests Brazil has recived support from
UN
World Bank
World Wildlife Fund
German Development Bank
ARPA now protects 10% of the Amazon Rainforest and this helps to stablise the local water cycle, support biodiversity and support indigenous populations.
Water allocation
In areas of water scarcity the goverment may allocate water supplies to different communities.
Water allocation has been used as a water management system in Collarado.
Problems facing the Colardo water system:
Lake Mead and Lake Powel operate at 52% capacity due to draughts and water extraction.
90% of Nevada's water geos to the agriculture and livestock industries, however they employ just 6,000 people.
Despite water scarcity Nevada state has granted over 100,000 building permits for new homes.
Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA)
Established to deal with water shortages.
Impacts of SNWA
Social
Fighting the construction of pipelines have strengthed local communities.
Some of the springs that the SNWA are using have been used by the Goshute tribe for 1,000 years.
Economic
Goshute tribe weave baskets from willows that require water aquifers being used by SNWA.
Less water to rural areas could damage the national parks and thus damage tourism.
Enviromental
Plants such as greasewood will die out.
Reducation in plant life will make dust storms more danagerous.
Alternatives to SNWA
Water consumption has been cut by over 30%.
Rules on watering gardens have been introduced to attempt to limit evapotranspiration.
Intergrated river basin management
Intergrated river basin management
-- this is where the entire river basin is organised to provide the best outcome to all stakeholders. These groups include water suppliers, agricultural users and enviromental groups.
Ireland
Ireland has seen river degradation. In the 1990s, 500 of Irelands rivers were Q5 (the highest rating), in 2018 it has droped to 21. This is because:
Agricultural pollution.
Poorly treated sewage.
Innvasive species such as Japanese Knotweed.
Solutions
There has been a 1.5 billion Euro investment from Irish Water into water treatment and water conservation.
Farmers are devloping improved nutrients managements.
Enagement of local communities and schools.