Sample quiz 3 answers:

1- D

2- E

3- C

4- A

5- C

6- B

7- E

8- C (reduction of upwelling reduces available nutrients and breaks down food chain at its base; fish need to go deeper or farther away to find food and hence catch is reduced)

9- F (we talked about tree-ring reconstructions of streamflow in class; “proxy” means substitute or alternate source of data)

10- B (cooler-than-normal temperatures and higher-than-normal precipitation in the Southwest during El Niños would be an example of such a teleconnection)

11- A

12- D (Pacific Decadal Oscillation (also called PDO) - I showed El Nino periods predominate after 1978 and La Nina more common before 1978 suggesting a 20-30 year cyclicity in their occurrence, i.e., “decadal” variability)

13. C (at higher temperatures more water vapor is required to saturate it, i.e., the air “holds” more water vapor). So, half (50%) of saturation would represent much more water vapor present in air at the highest temperature given [=40C]

14. C (“sublimation” also transfers H2O from ice/snow directly to the atmosphere, but “evapotranspiration” is much larger)

15. (a) Cooling and (b) increase of salinity largely by exclusion of salt when water freezes to form sea ice (some saline water is delivered into the N. Atlantic by the Gulfstream current as well).

16. See p. 89 of Mann/Kump. Precipitation is predicted to increase near the Equator, decrease at low latitudes (30°), and increase at high latitudes (60°).

17. TH circulation is the "global oceanic conveyor belt". It transports heat and salt in an attempt to even out their abundance around the world ocean. Currently, TH circulation is largely driven by deep-water formation in the N. Atlantic near Greenland, where high density cold, saline water sinks and begins a journey around the world ocean flowing as a bottom current and then returning as a near-surface warm current. Any event that stops or slows deep- water formation will slow TH-circulation and thereby slow the return flow of surface warm water to the N. Atlantic. This happened during the Younger Dryas as the ice sheets melted.

18. Southeast Asian (Indonesian) rain forests in western Pacific Ocean Basin, Amazon rain forest, Alaska & Pacific Northwest (including boreal forests of Alaska and western Canada), New England states, South Africa (see Fig. 5-16, page 118 of Mackenzie; p. 91 of Mann/Kump)

19. WE DID NOT QUITE YET GET TO THIS MATERIAL, SO IT WILL NOT BE ON QUIZ 3, hopefully on Mid-term exam

20. Our discussion of global atmospheric circulation (convection cells) and sinking air at 30 degrees and 90 degrees (deserts)

21. Locally, thawing permafrost can damage structures (buildings, roads, pipelines) and cause “drunken” forests; globally methane (a potent greenhouse gas) may be released from the permafrost.

22. SAME AS 19

23. see Eilperin for answer.

24. If rubber ducks, being carried by huge container ships, should fall overboard, they will move in accordance with the prevailing winds and currents. An example of just such a case in the N. Pacific subpolar gyre (near Aleutian Islands) was discussed in class, with the ducks eventually making it into the N. Atlantic Ocean and landing on beaches in Maine and England.

25. Specific heat of water is higher than land, so land will heat up more in the summer than the adjacent ocean and hence the ITCZ will move farther north over land than over ocean.