Download SNC2D 9.1 Discovering Past Climates

Section 9.1
Discovering Past Climates
Discovering Past Climates
People have been recording weather data for
only a few hundred years. To learn about what
Earth’s climate was like a few centuries ago,
scientists must get creative.
People who study past climates are called
paleoclimatologists.
Tree Rings
Tree growth is affected by temperature and rainfall. The
amount that a tree grows each season is indicated by the size
and colour of the annual rings, which you can see in the cross
section of the tree trunk (below). Dendochronologists study
details about the size, colour, and shape of each ring.
A wide tree ring indicates wet and
cool weather, which allows trees to
grow rapidly. A thin ring is
produced in dry and hot conditions,
when tree growth is slower. A dark
ring marks growth during late
summer, and a light-coloured ring
indicates growth during spring.
Tree Rings
Living trees hold records of climate dating back
no more than a few hundred years.
Tree trunks from archaeological sites allow
scientists to determine what climate was like a
few thousand years ago.
Ice Cores-Records of Past Climates
Like tree rings, layers of snow and ice accumulate year after
year. To uncover evidence of past climate conditions,
scientists use a special drill, that penetrates deep into the
layers to extract long, cylinder-shaped samples called ice
cores as shown in the figure below.
Scientists study the thickness and
composition of the ice in each layer in
order to make inferences about past
climates.
Evidence of Past Climates Obtained
from Ice Cores
Ice cores hold four types of clues frozen in time:
1. Dissolved and particulate matter in ice – (dust,
ash, salts, plant pollen, and other material) Frozen
samples of these materials give clues about events
and conditions, such as volcanic eruptions,
meteorite impacts, forest fires, and vegetation
cover.
2. Physical characteristics of the ice - (crystal size and
shape) Indicate the conditions of temperature and
humidity at the time the ice crystals formed.
Evidence of Past Climates Obtained
from Ice Cores
3. The composition of trapped air bubbles - When
water freezes, tiny air bubbles in the water may
become trapped inside the ice. These pockets of air
allow scientists to analyze the concentration of
greenhouse gases over hundreds of thousands of
years.
Evidence of Past Climates Obtained
from Ice Cores
4. The composition of the ice - Water (H2O) contains
varying proportions of hydrogen and oxygen
isotopes. Isotopes are different forms of an atom.
Water that contains oxygen-18 freezes at a higher
temperature than water that contains oxygen-16.
In addition, water that contains oxygen-16
evaporates more quickly than water that contains
oxygen-18. Therefore, the relative concentration of
isotopes in different layers of ice indicates the
temperature at the time the ice formed.
Evidence of Past Climates from
Sedimentary Rock
To obtain evidence of climates older than can be analyzed in
ice cores, scientists examine rocks. Every year, billions of
tons of sediment (fragments of rock) wash from the land and
accumulate in thick layers on ocean floors and lake beds.
The hard parts of small sea
creatures (such as diatoms,
and algae) and pollen from
flowering plants are
preserved in these sediments.
Over long periods of time, this deposited material becomes
compressed and hardened into sedimentary rock.
What Sediment Cores from Lakes and
Oceans Reveal
Data from the study of sediment cores
gives insight into:
global temperatures during a
specific time (by knowing the
common living thing)
The temperature of the water in
which an organism lived
The amount of rainfall and
temperature levels (by analyzing
the composition and amount of
sediment in layers)
Evidence of Past Climates from Fossils and Preserved
Organisms
The remains or traces of living things, called fossils, also
provide valuable clues when paleoclimatologists reconstruct
past climates.
Evidence of Past Climates from Fossils and Preserved
Organisms
The types and abundance of fossilized remains in
each rock layer help scientists reconstruct the
environment at the time the layer formed –
including the climate. Because plants and animals
are uniquely adapted to the environment in which
they live, studying these fossils gives scientists clues
about what environments were like thousands of
millions of years ago.
The Rate of Climate Change
Scientists are still debating whether climate change is
affected more by slow, gradual changes or by sudden,
catastrophic changes. This question is at the centre
of the controversy about whether humans can cause
earth’s climate to change significantly.
However, most climatologists agree that humans are
affecting the composition of Earth’s atmosphere.
This influence may increase or decrease the rate at
which climate change progresses.