Introduction:
To understand the world’s climate, how it has changed and how it will change is quite a difficult task; a task that is extremely controversial. Scientists have been doing numerous small scale experiments and extrapolating the data to predict future trends in climate and emissions. This paper will show how extrapolating dating from small scale experiments is not always accurate and have a large margin of error.
The paper will discuss the various methods that environmental scientists use in attempting to extrapolate data from small scale experiments. With major emphasis on how the methods used are unable to account for the numerous variables that would have to be factored in for determining a large scale change.
Air Pollution:
In a small scale experiment by Nath and Patil (2006) they used an in situ real time mixing height model. The Mixing Height (MH) is the dispersion depth of the atmospheric boundary layer, a crucial input parameter in air pollution models (Nath et al., 2006). This model is able to get specific data from nearby meteorological stations twice daily and extrapolate the data to get an estimate of the MH. However, the extrapolated values obtained can cause significant errors in the prediction of pollution due to the fact that MH is time and site dependant.
Nath and Patil claim that the use of the in situ real time mixing height model they could estimate onsite real time values of the MH from readily available surface measurements of temperature and wind. This data is than combined to a readily available air pollution prediction model to predict the current pollution in the specified area. This model is meant to be used for remote locations where development is new and there are not a l...
... middle of paper ...
...at can be replicated. Otherwise making large scale predictions from small scale experiments can be extremely flawed.
Works Cited
Drake, B.G., Peresta, G.J. (1993) Open top chambers for studies of the long-term effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on wetland and forest ecosystem processes. Plant and Soil, 187:111–118,
Moutinho-Pereira, J.M., Bacelar, E.A., Goncalves, B., Ferreira, H.F., Coutinho, J.F., Correia, C.M. (2009). Effects of Open-Top Chambers on physiological and yield attributes of field grown grapevines. Acta Physiol Plant, 32:395–403
Nath, S., Patil, R.S. (2006). Prediction of air pollution concentration using an in situ real time mixing height model. Atmospheric Environment, 40:3816–3822
Sanders, G.E., Clark A.G., Colls, J.J. (1991) The influence of open-top chambers on the growth and development of field bean. New Phytol 117:439–447
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), carbon dioxide is the primary gas emitted through human activities and is the most important human contributed greenhouse gas (Overview of greenhouse, 2014). Carbon dioxide is naturally occurring in Earth’s atmosphere. The passing of carbon dioxide through the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals is what is known as the carbon cycle. This carbon cycle is important to sustaining life here on Earth. Carbon dioxide is important to life on earth because it is the main component of many biological compounds, minerals, and exists in various forms in the atmosphere (Carbon Cycle, 2014). Humans are disrupting this carbon cycle however by adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and by removing natural absorbers of carbon dioxide, like forests to remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is where the greenhouse effect comes into play, since the industrial revolution there has been an increase in the human-related emission of carbon dioxide mainly due to the burning or combustion of fossil fuels for energy. Other contributors include certain industrial processes, the differen...
Wullschleger, S.D. and Norby, R.J. 2001. Sap velocity and canopy transpiration in a sweetgum stand exposed to free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE). New Phytologist 150: 489-498.
The experiments we conducted studied the effect of different temperatures on germinating beans and how effective the cellular respiration of these beans are under these varying conditions. We performed two experiments, the first with temperature at 22ºC and the second with the temperature at 13ºC, both as the independent variable. Then, we measured the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen from the bean container as the dependent variable. Our hypothesis was that the germinating beans respiration would be most effective at the room temperature. Our null hypothesis was that temperature wouldn’t have any effect on the germinating bean's respiration ability. Our resulting data rejected our null hypothesis in that temperature definitely affected the germinating beans effectiveness at respiration, and in fact the most effective temperature were the same as the temperatures the beans would naturally be conducting cellular respiration at, 22ºC.
Air pollution has become a significant problem in the US as well as the world over years. It’s the result of variety of sources like industrial, agriculture, mechanical and transportation. Sadly, transportation which releases a great amount of carbon dioxides, nitrogen oxides and other toxicity is proven the leading cause of air pollution. There are several transportation factors that contribute to air pollution in the US.
Abdalla (2006) showed that spacing 30 cm gave a significant increase in yield per plant, early yield and total yield comparing with plant spacing 60 cm.
Many cities are currently affected by air pollution and Hong Kong is one example. Hong Kong’s air pollution level often exceeds the recommended air pollution level put out by the World Health Organization, and Hong Kong’s pollution index was at “very high” meaning that it exceeded 101, for 34% of the time (Hunt, 2011). Another example, when Hong Kong excee...
Smog isn’t a major issue in Australia but in larger cities and developing countries where pollution levels are much higher smog is an everyday occurrence. Due to large populations these smog affected cities release a large sum of primary pollutants, which react with the atmosphere and in particular ultra violet light. The chemical reaction between the primary pollutants and ultraviolet light, results in secondary pollutants resulting in the formation of Photochemical Smog.
The continuous monitoring of pollution level in urban areas is important for a smart city. There are several parameter changes that indicate the pollution such as dust particle density in the air, humidity and the level of sound noise [3].
In the Earth's atmosphere, volatile gases mix with the air. The most common of these volatile gases are sulfur oxides and nitrogen. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are continuously increasing due to human poll...
Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of fuel--billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products into the atmosphere.
A greenhouse is a structure with a glass or plastic roof and side walls that is used for the production of ornamentals and food crops and may be used seasonally or year round. The closed environment of a greenhouse has its own unique requirements, compared with outdoor production. Pests and diseases, and extremes of heat and humidity, have to be controlled, and irrigation is necessary to provide water. Significant inputs of heat and light may be required, particularly with winter production of warm-weather crops. (Douglas Cox, ,. 2010)
Air pollution results from high concentrations of chemicals and particulate matter that pose a threat to human health, ecosystems, and manmade materials. Pollutants can be solid particles, liquids, or gases and are produced by human sources along with natural sources. Pollution from natural sources tend to become diluted and dispersed without causing major harm, whereas pollutants resulting from human sources tend to be more localized and a more serious problem. Scientists categorize air contaminants into two main categories: primary pollutants that directly enter the atmosphere and secondary pollutants formed between primary air pollutants and natural air components. Recent studies have been done in an effort to identify “the contributions of secondary pollutants formed by gas phase or surface chemistry to the levels and types of air pollutants that accumulate indoors (S).” It has been hypothesized that indoor air quality is two to five times worse than outdoor pollution due to the fact that buildings are enclosed, and therefore retain the particles inside with less chance to di...
“According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), human activities release some 147 million metric tons of air pollutants (not counting carbon dioxide or windblown soil) into the atmosphere each year in the United States alone. Worldwide emissions are around 2 billion metric tons per year.” (Cunningham and Cunningham). Many large cities exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, especially in China. In fact, 16 of the 20 cities with the most smog are in China (Cunningham and Cunningham).
Air pollution is a type of pollution that can severely damage our environment as well as the earth’s atmosphere. Air pollution occurs all the time when the air contains many substances ...
High consumption of fuel during flight, and the type of fuel used (fossil fuel) are the main culprits of pollution "in the sky". But even in this field,...