Water and Carbon Cycles - Links and Feedback
Summary
TLDRThis video explores the interconnections between the water and carbon cycles, emphasizing their fundamental roles in sustaining life on Earth. It discusses how these cycles are influenced by each other and by human activities, such as climate change and deforestation. The script also delves into feedback mechanisms, illustrating how positive feedback loops can amplify climate change impacts, while negative feedbacks can help restore balance. Examples include the melting of permafrost releasing greenhouse gases and increased cloud cover reflecting sunlight to cool the Earth.
Takeaways
- 🌎 Water and carbon are essential building blocks for life on Earth and are continuously cycled through Earth's systems.
- 🔁 Both cycles involve a closed system with limited and fixed amounts of water and carbon on the planet.
- 🏞️ The lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere serve as shared stores for both water and carbon cycles.
- 🌡️ The water and carbon cycles experience temporal changes, such as seasonal variations, and are influenced by spatial variations like climate zones.
- 💧 Water is a critical component in carbon cycle processes like photosynthesis and respiration, indicating a direct influence of the water cycle on the carbon cycle.
- 🌡️ Increased water vapor, a greenhouse gas, affects the carbon cycle by contributing to climate change.
- 🌊 Changes in the carbon cycle, such as those caused by climate change, can impact water stores like ice caps and glaciers.
- 🌳 Human activities like climate change, deforestation, and agriculture significantly disrupt the natural cycles of water and carbon.
- ➡️ Positive feedback loops, such as melting permafrost releasing more greenhouse gases, amplify changes within the cycles, leading to more severe effects.
- 🔁 The loss of sea ice due to warming oceans reduces albedo, causing more sunlight to be absorbed and leading to further temperature rises, another positive feedback loop.
- 🌱 Negative feedbacks, like increased photosynthesis at warmer temperatures absorbing CO2, work to diminish changes and restore balance to the cycles.
Q & A
What are the fundamental similarities between the water and carbon cycles?
-Both water and carbon are essential building blocks for life on Earth, and both elements are continuously cycled around the Earth in closed systems with limited and fixed amounts respectively.
What are the common stores shared by the water and carbon cycles?
-The Earth's lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere serve as common stores for both the water and carbon cycles.
How do changes in the water cycle affect the carbon cycle?
-Water is an essential component in processes like photosynthesis and respiration, which are part of the carbon cycle. Additionally, water vapor is a greenhouse gas that can influence the carbon cycle by affecting atmospheric temperatures.
How can changes in the carbon cycle impact water stores and transfers?
-Changes in the carbon cycle, such as increased greenhouse gases due to human activities, can lead to global warming, which in turn can affect water stores like ice caps and glaciers.
What human activities can disrupt the natural water and carbon cycles?
-Human activities such as climate change, deforestation, and agriculture can have significant impacts on both the water and carbon cycles by altering their natural processes and balances.
What is the concept of positive feedback in the context of the water and carbon cycles?
-Positive feedback is a process that amplifies changes within a system. For example, increased temperatures due to climate change can lead to the melting of permafrost, releasing more greenhouse gases and further increasing temperatures.
Can you provide an example of a positive feedback loop involving the water cycle?
-Yes, as ocean temperatures rise, increased evaporation can lead to higher concentrations of water vapor, a greenhouse gas, which in turn can cause further warming and more evaporation.
How does the loss of sea ice contribute to positive feedback loops?
-Sea ice has a high albedo, reflecting sunlight and helping to cool the Earth. As sea ice diminishes due to warming, less sunlight is reflected, leading to more absorption of heat and further temperature rise.
What is the role of wildfires in creating positive feedback loops related to the carbon cycle?
-Wildfires, intensified by droughts caused by climate change, release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect and further warming.
What is the concept of negative feedback in the context of the water and carbon cycles?
-Negative feedback works to diminish changes within a system, leading to a return to equilibrium. For example, increased temperatures could stimulate more photosynthesis, which absorbs carbon dioxide and can lead to cooling.
How does increased evaporation contribute to negative feedback loops?
-Increased evaporation can lead to more cloud cover, which reflects sunlight and can cause a cooling effect, counteracting the initial temperature increase.
Outlines
🌎 Water and Carbon Cycles: Essential Building Blocks
This paragraph introduces the fundamental importance of water and carbon cycles for life on Earth. Both elements are essential for life and are continuously cycled through Earth's systems in a closed loop. They share similar stores such as the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere. The cycles are subject to temporal and spatial changes, with variations influenced by factors like climate and human activities. The paragraph also discusses how water is a critical component in carbon cycle processes like photosynthesis and respiration, and how water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas, influencing the carbon cycle. Human activities such as climate change and deforestation can disrupt these cycles.
🔥 Positive Feedback Loops in Climate Change
The second paragraph delves into the concept of positive feedback within the carbon cycle, using the example of temperature rise due to climate change. It explains how this can lead to the melting of permafrost, releasing more greenhouse gases and further increasing temperatures. The paragraph also discusses how increased ocean temperatures can lead to higher evaporation rates, adding more water vapor—a greenhouse gas—to the atmosphere. It mentions other impacts such as the release of dissolved CO2 from oceans and the decrease in sea ice, which reduces albedo and leads to more sunlight absorption and temperature rise. The paragraph also touches on how temperature rise can lead to droughts and increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires, releasing more CO2 and creating additional positive feedback loops.
❄️ Negative Feedback and Dynamic Equilibrium
The final paragraph contrasts positive feedback with negative feedback, which works to diminish changes and restore balance. It uses the example of increased temperatures potentially leading to more photosynthesis, which would absorb CO2 and reduce greenhouse gases, thus cooling the planet. The paragraph also discusses how increased evaporation can lead to more cloud cover, which reflects sunlight and creates a cooling effect, counteracting the initial temperature increase. This illustrates the role of negative feedback in maintaining dynamic equilibrium between the water and carbon cycles.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Water Cycle
💡Carbon Cycle
💡Feedbacks
💡Greenhouse Gases
💡Permafrost
💡Albedo
💡Evaporation
💡Photosynthesis
💡Respiration
💡Deforestation
💡Cryosphere
Highlights
Water and carbon cycles are essential building blocks for life on Earth.
Both water and carbon are continuously cycled around Earth systems in a closed system at a global scale.
The Earth's lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere are shared stores for both cycles.
Water and carbon cycles experience temporal and spatial changes.
Water is an essential component in the transfers within the carbon cycle.
Water vapor is a greenhouse gas that affects the carbon cycle.
Changes in the carbon cycle can impact water stores and transfers.
Human activities like climate change and deforestation significantly impact both cycles.
Agriculture impacts both the water and carbon cycles.
Positive feedback loops amplify changes within systems.
Melting of permafrost due to temperature rise releases more greenhouse gases.
Increased ocean temperatures can lead to increased evaporation and greenhouse gas concentrations.
Warmer oceans can release dissolved CO2, contributing to positive feedback loops.
Decrease in sea ice due to warmer oceans leads to reduced albedo and temperature rise.
Increasing levels of drought and wildfires due to temperature rise release carbon dioxide.
Negative feedback loops have a diminishing effect and lead to dynamic equilibrium.
Warmer temperatures can increase photosynthesis, absorbing CO2 and leading to a cooling effect.
Increased evaporation can lead to increased cloud cover, reflecting sunlight and causing a cooling effect.
Transcripts
within this video we're going to
consider
some of the links that exist between the
water and carbon cycles
and we're also going to think about how
some of those links can be demonstrated
by the concept of different feedbacks
that occur
as a result of changes so if you think
about what maybe the water and carbon
cycle have in common
to start with the first most obvious
thing
that applies to both of those cycles is
that both water and carbon
we can consider them as being essential
building blocks for life on earth
without water or without carbon
life can't exist on the planet so
they're very very fundamental
both of these elements are also
continuously
cycled around the earth systems
in a closed system at a global scale
so we have a limited amount of water and
a fixed amount of carbon
on the planet and both of those cycles
can be considered as systems with stores
and transfers and flows
moving either water or carbon between
the main stores
water and carbon cycles also share
similar stores so for example
the earth's lithosphere is a store of
both water and carbon
the same for the biosphere the same for
the atmosphere
and the hydrosphere and the cryosphere
as well
both of these cycles also experience
changes and they experience
changes temporally or changes over time
so for example seasonally the water
cycle and carbon cycle experience
changes in the long term they are
experiencing dynamic
equilibrium certainly if we factor out
human activity
these cycles can also experience spatial
variations
so for example we can consider how
perhaps rates of
evaporation or rates of photosynthesis
are also much
higher in areas with warmer climates
such as in the tropics
in order to understand the links we can
also consider the fact that water is an
essential component
in some of the transfers happening
within the carbon cycle
so for example photosynthesis and
respiration
can't happen without the presence of
water
so you could argue that the water cycle
is in fact influencing the carbon cycle
we can think about it the other way as
well
water vapor is a greenhouse gas so that
in turn is going to affect the carbon
cycle because
with increased amounts of water vapor in
the atmosphere
the carbon cycle will be affected a
result of climate change
changes that take place within the
carbon cycle can also impact on water
stores and transfers
so for example any warming that might
happen
as a result of changes to the carbon
cycle as a result of climate change
that could impact maybe the stores of
water such as ice caps and glaciers
cryosphere would be affected by and both
of these
cycles can be impacted or influenced by
similar human activities
so if we take the two activities of
climate change that we've mentioned
and also deforestation both of those
activities can have significant impacts
on disrupting
the natural water and carbon cycles that
exist on the planet
agriculture would be another example of
a human activity that has an impact on
both of those cycles
in order for us to understand some of
these links in a little bit more detail
it's important that we also consider the
different types of feedback
that link these two cycles together
so perhaps if we start by considering
the concept of
positive feedback
positive feedback is a feedback that has
an
amplifying effect so any changes that
happen
within a system if it experiences
positive feedback those changes are
going to get more and more severe
each time we can think about how some of
these operate within the carbon cycle
so let's take for example the
temperature rise that happens
as a result of climate change
if we think about what the knock-on
effects of that temperature rise could
be
we can start to unpick some of the
feedbacks so for example
as a result of temperature rises caused
by
climate change we might experience the
melting
of permafrost this could happen
in high latitude areas like northern
canada
northern russia as a result of the
melting of that permafrost
we are going to release more greenhouse
gases
so more greenhouse gases
are going to end up in our atmosphere
as a result of the melting of that
permafrost
and we can see if we think back to what
we know about the enhanced greenhouse
effect
then if we've got more greenhouse gases
in our atmosphere that in turn
is going to lead to a temperature rise
so there we have
one example of positive feedback
we can think about the impact of this
temperature rise having other influences
as well
so as a result of temperature rise we
also might find
that ocean temperatures will increase
if ocean temperatures increase that in
turn
could lead to there being increased
levels of
evaporation we know that water vapor
is a greenhouse gas and therefore we can
see
how that in turn would lead to increased
concentrations of greenhouse gases in
our atmosphere
now these ocean temperatures might cause
other things to happen as well
another example might be that as oceans
get warmer
any co2 that has been dissolved within
the ocean is going to be released as
that ocean gets warmer
that in turn is going to add carbon
dioxide
into our atmosphere thereby creating
another
of these positive feedback loops
another impact of the increase in ocean
temperatures
might be to cause a decrease in the
amount of sea ice
as oceans get warmer the extent
and the coverage of that sea ice is
going to diminish now sea ice is
normally
very reflective it has what we call a
high albedo it reflects a lot of
sunlight but if the sea ice disappears
then that reflectivity is going to be
lost so we can think about the loss of
sea ice
leading to reduced albedo
in simple terms that means that more
sunlight
is going to be absorbed
at the earth's surface if that happens
we will also
experience a temperature rise so there
we have another
positive feedback loop you can also
maybe consider
how some of these impacts might
affect the biosphere so as a result of
temperature rise
we might have increasing levels of
drought
areas are likely to become hotter and
drier as a result of climate change
that in turn could lead to the increased
intensity or frequency of wildfires
and those wildfires in turn are going to
release
carbon dioxide which will create another
of these positive feedback loops so we
can see that as a result of
one change which is the increase in the
temperature
as a result of human activity the result
of this
one change we get several
positive feedback loops occurring and
this would amplify
those changes causing the temperature
rise to happen more and more quickly
it's also important that we can consider
the concept of
negative feedback as well so negative
feedback does the opposite
to positive feedback it actually has a
diminishing
effect so any changes that take place
within a system
are going to be diminished and
ultimately negative feedback
that leads to dynamic equilibrium
these are feedbacks that occur that
bring things back to normal
so again if we started with our initial
situation where by maybe we had
increased
temperatures so we think about that
concept of global warming again
and we think about temperatures
increasing as a result of that
that could kick-start some negative
feedbacks
so one of the things that might happen
as a result of those warmer temperatures
is um more photosynthesis
could happen temperature is a
determining factor in the rate of
photosynthesis
so if that happened that would absorb
greenhouse gases and particularly carbon
dioxide from our atmosphere
so we'd have fewer greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere as a result of
photosynthesis
if that was to happen we would
ultimately
experience a cooling effect
and we wouldn't crucially get this link
back to the increased temperatures that
wouldn't happen
so the increase in temperature has
kick-started a negative feedback
which has brought things back to normal
it's diminished that change and it's
brought about
some dynamic equilibrium now there
aren't as many
negative feedbacks as there are positive
feedbacks in relation to the water and
carbon cycles
but another important one actually links
back to one that we mentioned a moment
ago which was
increased levels of evaporation
now as well as putting water vapor into
the atmosphere
increased evaporation will also
lead to increased cloud cover
clouds play an important role in terms
of reflecting
any sunlight
that might hit them they don't reflect
all of it obviously but they do reflect
some sunlight
and as a result of that we would
experience
again a cooling effect not
taking us back to that initial change
which was the increase
in temperature so we can see here how
some of those
negative feedbacks also help us to
understand
some of the links between the water and
carbon cycles
浏览更多相关视频
Understanding Climate Part 2: Volcanoes, Oceans, and Internal Variability
Climate Change for Kids | A fun engaging introduction to climate change for kids
Climate change: Earth's giant game of Tetris - Joss Fong
Climate 101: Deforestation | National Geographic
Video Graphic: Climate Change
What Is the Greenhouse Effect?
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)