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Past Climate Change
Coring Glacial Ice
Ice Core Data
Pollen core data collection
Pollen Core Data
Distribution of North American Trees in past 16,000 years
Black-tailed prairie dog
Northern bog lemming
Eastern chipmunk
Global Ice Coverage Last Ice Age
Rainforests in: a. Glacial period, b. Inter-glacial period
Global
carbon
cycle
Change in Average Global
Temperature
Statistics and climate change
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla
yer_embedded&v=e0vj-0imOLw
Surface temperature trends from
1800-2009
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/vid
eo/2011/oct/20/berkeley-earth-climatechange-video
Model predictions of global
temperature increase
Predicted surface change 1960-2060
Current distributions of biomes
Predictions for biomes after global warming
The Earth Ice Free
Global Ice Coverage Last Ice Age
Will species be able to survive
current climate change?
• Maybe
• Maybe not
New Complications with Climate Change
1. Current species and populations are
already stressed by habitat loss and
environmental degradation
2. Habitat loss will make it harder for species
to migrate to new areas
3. Global temperature may increase to
temperatures that are much greater than
species experienced in the past
4. Rate of global climate change is probably
faster than in geologic past
Pikas may run out of mountaintop
Habitat Loss
Orange County, California
Habitat Loss
• Habitat is the physical and biological
environment used by an individual, a
population or a species
• Habitat degradation is the process by which
habitat quality for a given species is
diminished
• Habitat loss occurs when the habitat quality
for a given species is so low that the
environment can no longer support the
species
Ecosystem Loss
• Ecosystem is a group of organisms and their
physical environment
• Ecosystem degradation occurs when alterations to
an ecosystem degrade or destroy habitat for many
of the species that constitute the ecosystem
• Ecosystem loss occurs when the changes to an
ecosystem are so great and so many species
typical of that ecosystem (especially dominant
species) are lost that the ecosystem switches from
one type to another
What are the main processes that
degrade habitat and ecosystems?
Processes that degrade habitat
and ecosystems
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Contamination/Pollution
Human built structures
Soil erosion
Changing fire regimes
Changing water use and hydrology
Deforestation
Desertification
Draining wetlands
Copper Basin, Tennessee
Copper Basin, Tennessee
1926
1939
Copper Basin today
Copper Basin – Superfund site
Restoration of Burra Burra Pit,
Copper Basin
Mid-1990s
Mid 2000s
Copper mine tailings, Butte, Montana –
largest Superfund site in America
Mine tailings outskirts of
Sudbury, Ontario
Restoration of Sudbury
Air pollution – Mexico City
Extent of Acid Precipitation
Rhine River Basin
Healthy Coral Reef
Dying Coral Reefs
Bleached coral
Silted out reef
DDT use in 1950s
DDT in
Zimbabwe
Thin Egg Shells from DDT
Human Built Structures
Pacific or California
Fire-bellied Newt
Pacific or California Fire-bellied Newt –
don’t try this at home w/o washing hands
Tilden Park, Berkeley, CA
Snake migration in Shawnee
Copperhead
Dandelion dispersal – along roads
and railroads
Bonneville Dam, Columbia River, Oregon
Fish Ladders
The Dingo –
Canis familiarus dingo
Dingo Fence – The World’s Longest Fence
– New South Wales
Erosion and loss of habitat on
Round Island, Mauritius
Smokey
the bear
- 1953
Smokey the
Bear - 1960
Everglades
Surface
Water Flow