Climate Change Exercise Part C: Synthesis
Quiz Instructions
Part C of this exercise involves examination of time series data for CO2 atmospheric concentrations at two other monitoring sites: (i) Barrow, Alaska (Barrow) (Links to an external site.) and (ii) American Samoa (American Samoa) (Links to an external site.). For each link it is the graph of carbon dioxide accessible in the “Examples of Data” on the right side of each webpage that should be examined. The question in this part of the exercise involves comparison of these time series data for CO2 concentrations with those from Mauna Loa, Hawai’i examined in Part B of this exercise.
Question 1
Bonus Question (5 pt)
What is the typical range of annual fluctuations, the overall increase in CO2 for the data series, and the average annual increase shown by the black line in the graph of CO2 concentrations for Barrow and for American Samoa? How do the data for Barrow and for American Samoa resemble or differ from those for Mauna Loa and how do they collectively help establish temporal trends in global atmospheric levels of CO2?
A strong answer will specify the magnitude of the annual fluctuations in CO2concentrations for Barrow and American Samoa, noting units, and the overall range of annual fluctuations. Comparison with the Mauna Loa data will describe specific quantitative characteristics and explain how these relate to the latitudinal variations of annual CO2 uptake by plants. Temporal changes in CO2atmospheric concentrations for the three sites will be explained as representative of the global trend in these data.