Plant Ecology in a Changing World
  • Topics
    • Topic Overview
    • Biomes and Climates in a Changing World >
      • Adaptation, biodiversity, and environment
      • Climate constrains plant distributions
      • Biome and climate relationships
      • Deserts
      • Grassland, savanna, and shrub biomes
      • Forest biomes
      • Alpine and tundra biomes
    • Plant adaptation >
      • Plant microclimate 1
      • Plant microclimate 2
      • Leaf energy budgets
      • Water movement through the soil-plant continuum
      • Principles of photosynthesis
      • Photosynthesis responses to light and temperature
      • Environmental stresses limit resource capture and use
      • Nutrients in the environment
      • Adaptation to environmental stress
    • Resource Allocation Changes with Environment >
      • Architecture and canopy processes
      • Plant phenology and resource allocation enhance performance
      • Leaf economic spectrum
      • Life history and reproduction
      • Defense against herbivory
      • Plant competition
    • Plant Responses to a Changing World >
      • Global changes occurring today
      • Invasive species
      • Atmospheric CO2 impacts plant
      • C3/C4 photosynthesis and climate
      • Climate change and the global carbon cycle
      • Climate warming and its impacts
    • Engineering Plant Communities >
      • Remember Utah's past and envision our future
      • Restoration ecology
      • Managed ecosystems
      • Utah urban ecology
      • Urban ecological futures
  • Assignments
    • Assignment Overview
    • Discussion
    • Problem sets
    • Ecology & Global Changes
    • Plant ecology policy
    • Defense of policy
    • Exam #1
    • Exam #2
  • Campus
    • Campus Overview
    • Grasses
    • Green infrastructure >
      • GI Overview
      • Stormwater >
        • GI 1
        • GI 2
        • GI 3
        • GI 4
        • GI 10
      • Green roof
      • Pollinator >
        • Pollinator species
    • Trees of the Wasatch
    • Shrubs of the Wasatch
    • Invasives
  • Biomes
    • Biome Overview
    • Climate diagrams
    • Vegetation sight-seeing trip
    • Biome images
  • Models
  • Lab
Still in preparation - check back soon
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Topic 26 - Climate change and the global carbon cycle: drivers affecting biological change
 
Essential elements from Topic 26:


“The climate is changing”. We hear it the news every day. And, yes, climate changes will undoubtedly play a major role in your economics, life style, and the activities of plants and ecosystems that surround you for many generations to come. We understand that climate has changed over the history of Earth. Yet the temperature-related changes in our climate appear to exceed the rates of change from previous climate changes. As our societies continue to emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the changes are very likely to accelerate.
 
In this lecture, we focus at the global scale. We will address such important issues as
  • Where is all of the increasing atmospheric CO2 coming from?
  • Land and ocean plants absorb about 50% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This is effectively a subsidy.
  • What is required to “bend the curve” and reduce the atmospheric CO2 growth rate?
  • What are the consequences of increasing atmospheric CO2 on climate and plants?


Click here to download PDF of slides associated with Topic 26
Click here to view YOUTUBE videos on Topic 26
Jim Ehleringer, University of Utah