Example Exam Questions for Global Change Course

The following questions represent concepts presented in block 3 during previous years. Some of the questions may address concepts that were not covered this year.

  1. List three specific physiological responses of plants to increases in atmospheric CO2.
  2. Discuss the difference between C3 and C4 plants.
  3. How does change in atmospheric CO2 affect water-use efficiency? What does this imply for CO2-induced climate change?
  4. Discuss (perhaps with a graph) the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the lower part of a forest
  5. Discuss the water-use efficiency of plants as a function of atmospheric CO2 concentration.
  6. Discuss how short-rotation woody crops can be blended into Iowa agriculture as a complement to corn and soybeans for producing biomass (i.e., describe what SRWC is and how it contributes to a farm's economics).
  7. A tree takes CO2 from air and converts it to plant carbon, but then returns the carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or methane (both of which are greenhouse gases). So why is reforestation promoted as practice that will suppress global warming?
  8. Discuss global population distribution and changes. Include discussion about large population countries, high birth-rate regions, low birth-rate regions, relationship to education.
  9. Where in the global community is population growth the greatest and where is it the least? What is the reason for the difference?
  10. What needs to be done to get at the root problems of increased population.
  11. Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of passive vs. active solar energy installations for homes.
  12. Burning coal produces CO2, but where do the following air pollutants come from?
  13. List three distinct types of solar energy.
  14. Discuss the difference between active and passive solar energy. Which form is more economical?
  15. List four of the six air pollutants discussed in class and give a source for each.
  16. Discuss why biomass, hydroelectric, and ocean thermal energy are considered forms of solar energy.
  17. Human health effects of UV radiation. UV-C has higher energy and therefore is more damaging to biological tissue that UV-B. Then why are we concerned about UV-B rather than UV-C radiation?
  18. Observed climate scenarios, global climate models, and sensitivity studies are three ways of evaluating possible future climate change. Discuss what is meant by internal consistency and state which of these methods are internally consistent.
  19. What is the "dumb farmer" approach to assessing the impact of climate change on agriculture?
  20. Give the goal of sustainable agriculture.
  21. What is sustainable agriculture and how does it differ from conventional agriculture?
  22. What is industrial ecology?
  23. Discuss the spatial and temporal evolution of species diversity under both natural and anthropogenic influence.
  24. Prairie potholes.
  25. Discuss the meaning of NPP = GPP - Ra.
  26. Discuss the use of NPP by humans.
  27. Environmental refugees:
  28. What is the normative re-educative approach to social change and give an example.
  29. Discuss the urbanization process. Include where it exists, when it started, reasons why it happens, impacts on the city, impacts on the countryside.
  30. 3State whether each of the following is true or false:
  31. Discuss the urbanization process. Include where it exists, when it started, reasons why it happens, impacts on the city, impacts on the countryside.
  32. Discuss some of the steps the State of Iowa has taken toward addressing the global change issue.
  33. Discuss the following statement: "The status of women is the key to the global change problem."
Additional questions from block 1

  1. What distinguishes a "global change" environmental issue from other environmental issues?
  2. Discuss the difference between physical properties and chemical properties of atmospheric trace-gas constituents.
  3. Give arguments to support the statement that it is the physical properties of trace gases that impact global warming but chemical properties that impact ozone depletion.
  4. The troposphere and stratosphere are two regions of the atmosphere that have distinctly different properties as reservoirs for atmospheric trace contaminants.
  5. If we are worried about emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels, why is so much attention paid to natural sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2?
  6. How does a gas qualify as a greenhouse gas?
  7. Since water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, why do we not consider eliminating agricultural irrigation rather than limiting CO2 or methane emissions?
  8. Discuss the validity of the following statement: "Carbonated beverages (e.g., Coke, Pepsi) give off CO2 and therefore contribute to an increase in greenhouse gases." `
  9. List 2 solids, 2 liquids, and 2 gases that are a part of the global carbon cycle. For each of the six answers for part (a), give its preceding form in the carbon cycle and also the form it takes when it breaks down or is transformed to the next step of the carbon cycle.
  10. Discuss the relative time scales for storing carbon in corn stalks, oak trees, and deep-sea marine shell fish. Compare these with the lifetime of carbon in the atmosphere.
  11. Why is it important to be able to account for all fluxes of carbon in the earth/atmosphere/ocean system?
  12. List three distinct molecules in the atmosphere that contain carbon and give a natural source and an anthropogenic source of each.
  13. The global nitrogen cycle and the global sulfur cycle were discussed in class, but more emphasis was put on the global carbon cycle. Of the nitrogen and sulfur cycles, only one compound was listed as being of global concern, even though these two cycles contribute most to acid rain and general air pollution. Discuss the reason these two cycles contribute less to global problems, and state and describe the one exception.
  14. Air pollutants
  15. Acid deposition
  16. Give two classes of compounds considered as culprits in acid deposition and give two members of each class.
  17. Discuss the process by which a lake becomes acidic.
  18. Discuss the main features of the "conveyor belt" circulation that links the major global oceans.
  19. Briefly discuss the rotation of flow within the major ocean basins.
  20. What is upwelling?
  21. Where and why does upwelling occur?
  22. Discuss the biological importance of upwelling?
  23. Sketch and discuss the structure of the coastal freshwater lens.
  24. How might the coastal supply of freshwater be vulnerable to climate change through Vulnerability of hydrologic systems to climate change:
  25. Schaake's study of the relationship between precipitation, evapotranspiration, and runoff showed that when precipitation or evapotranspiration changed by 10%, significant changes in runoff can occur in certain parts of the US. Discuss this relationship.
  26. In the lecture on the hydrological cycle, 5 criteria were discussed for identifying regions at risk for water availability. List two of these criteria and for each give a region of the US that is at risk.
  27. Sketch a vertical cross-section showing a well that is being vigorously pumped. Label the bottom of the vadose (unsaturated) zone. Referring to your sketch, discuss what might occur if this was on an ocean island.
  28. In the IPCC Executive Summary for Chapter 2, the statement is made: Over a 20 year period, the GWP (Global Warming Potential) of equal mass emissions of gas is as follows: CO2:1;CH4:63;N2O:270;CFC-11:4500;CFC-12:7100;HCFC-22:4100.
  29. Depending on your point of view, the deep oceans may be considered either an internal or an external influence on climate change. Explain.
Additional questions from block 2

  1. Since weather forecast models give rotten forecasts beyond 7 days (which is true) why can these models be used to make 100-year forecasts of climate with any credibility?
  2. Explain what a feedback mechanism is and give one example each of a positive and a negative climate feedback mechanism.
  3. Discuss what present generation global climate models tell us might happen if the atmospheric concentration of CO2 were to double. Discuss:
  4. Give two reasons or examples supporting the validity of climate models for giving reasonably correct projections of future climates.
  5. Give two reasons or examples why climate models could be expected to have difficulty projecting future climates.
  6. Give three changes in climate that are produced by essentially all climate models for a doubling of atmospheric CO2.
  7. What natural variations of climate make difficult the detection of anthropogenic climate change?
  8. El Nino/la Nina
  9. Satellites
  10. Explain why changes in Antarctic ice accumulation under modest global warming will cause sea level to drop. How does this compare with Greenland ice accumulation?
  11. Use the sketch below to explain the response of the Antarctic sheet and the Greenland ice sheet to global warming.
  12. List three specific physiological responses of plants to increases in atmospheric CO2.
  13. Discuss the difference between C3 and C4 plants.
  14. How does change in atmospheric CO2 affect water-use efficiency? What does this imply for CO2-induced climate change?
  15. Discuss (perhaps with a graph) the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the lower part of a forest