Climate Change

Climate Change By Carmen Phillips Working with Heidi Roop

What is Climate Change Climate change is a significant change of climate. It includes major changes in precipitation, temperature, or wind patterns. Climate patterns play the basic role in shaping natural ecosystems and human economies. It usually occurs over several decades or longer.

This is an example of climate change. Climate change melts the sea ice. What is Paleoclimatology? Paleoclimatology is the study of past climate. Heidi is a PhD Candidate in Sedimentology and Paleoclimatology. To study past climate, scientist use proxies, which are imprints created in the past, to explain paleoclimate. Some proxies include ice cores, tree rings, coral, and sediment cores. Paleoclimatology is important for past, present, and future issues.

This is a proxy known as foraminifera. Using Mud to Study Past ClimateLayered in the mud is evidence of the landscapes changes. Heidi uses the layers and chemistry of mud from the bottom of lakes to learn about past climate. Mud is one of the most important tools in reconstructing past climate. When a lake becomes permanent, it begins to fill with sediments and layer upon layer, pollen is trapped in the accumulating mud. The buried pollen fossilizes and provides a record of regional vegetation and therefore climate changes through time.

Scientist use this to study past climate where a river used to be. This is mud that is being measured to study past climate.

Using Lake Sediments to Study Past ClimateHeidi uses lake sediments to study past climate. Some proxies used to study climates in the past are tree rings and layers of sediments form the bottoms of lakes and oceans. Debris flows into a lake and makes its way to the bottom adding more layers of sediments there.

These are scientist who are drilling the ocean floor for a core of ocean sediments. Changes in Climate

Ice is melting in the Arctic. The melting ice is already affecting native people, wildlife, and plants. Average temperatures are rising twice as fast then they were before. The Arctic has shrunken by between 3.5 and 4.1 percent per decade since satellite records began in 1979. In the summer the change was really strong with ice decreasing 13 percent per decade. To see more graphs and more information you can visit IPCC: Six graphs that explain how the climate is changing | Carbon Brief. This is a graph showing how much ice has melted between 1900 and 2000 in the Arctic.Conclusion Climate change is a significant change in climate. Paleoclimatology is the study of past climate. Some ways to study Paleoclimatology is to use mud and lake sediments. It is important to know the climates in the past so we can figure out what will likely happen in the future. Climate change is going on and is important for use to know. It is important to understand and predict what might come next.

Bibliography and Thanks http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/kling/paleoclimate/ http://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/proxies/paleoclimate.html http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/ https://www.google.com/ And A Special Thanks to Heidi Roop for helping me with the Project