生物多样性和全球气候变化+林大资料.ppt

* * * * * * Adapted from MA Synthesis Figure 3. Conversion of Terrestrial Biomes (Adapted from C4, S10) It is not possible to estimate accurately the extent of different biomes prior to significant human impact, but it is possible to determine the “potential” area of biomes based on soil and climatic conditions. This Figure shows how much of that potential area is estimated to have been converted by 1950 (medium certainty), how much was converted between 1950 and 1990 (medium certainty). MA SDM: “Humans are fundamentally, and to a significant extent irreversibly, changing the diversity of life on Earth, and most of these changes represent a loss of biodiversity. ■ More than two thirds of the area of 2 of the world’s 14 major terrestrial biomes and more than half of the area of 4 other biomes had been converted by 1990, primarily to agriculture.” * * The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming Greenhouse Analogy: Anyone who has visited a greenhouse for growing plants or sat in a parked car with the windows closed on a warm summer day has experienced the principle behind global warming. The sunlight goes through the glass and the heat is trapped inside. The gases in the atmosphere surrounding the earth act much the same way. Incoming solar radiation passes through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface, but most of the outgoing radiation emitted from the surface of the Earth is absorbed by the greenhouse gas molecules in the atmosphere and reradiated back towards the earth. In other words, the greenhouse gases trap heat as it is reradiated from the earth back to space. The effect of this is to warm the earth’s surface. Water vapor and carbon dioxide are the 2 most abundant natural greenhouse gases. This natural greenhouse effect keeps the earth about 60°F warmer than it otherwise would be. Without the greenhouse effect, life as we know it would not be possible. * * Temporal shifts in temperature and in chromosome inversion frequencies at different latitu