Climate Change
Preparation Questions (Fall 2006)

I will handout Prep. Questions at the beginning of each class - you are responsible for answering them on the sheet provided. The answers can be found in the readings and/or on the web. I may gather these as a quiz occasionally.

August 29, 2006 (Tuesday)

1 - Who are the authors of your two books and what is their role in the fairly new discipline of Climate Science?

2 - What are climate Proxy records? Give some examples.

3 – What is the significance of the diagram below? (from Goddard Institute of Space Studies, NASA)

For 31 August (Thursday)

1 – What is Paleoclimatology and what is it good for?

2 – Think about the diagram below? How would you explain it?

3 – We will discuss atmospheric circulation on Thursday. What ultimately drives circulation?

For 4 and 5 September (Monday and Tuesday)

1 - Note that the 30 October trip to Byrd Polar Research Center has been changed to 6 November (Monday).

2 - Monday we will be travelling to David Kline's farm to core oaks. We will leave promptly at 1 pm. Dr. Nigel Brush and his wife Anne will join us for the sampling. Wear field clothes and bring a notebook and rain gear (if it rains).

3 - The State of California just passed an agreement that imposes the most sweeping controls on CO2 emissions - this may be a start of something....

4 - Think about what tree-rings are good for - read the sections in Ruddiman - look in the index. We will also take a brief tour of the Tree Ring Lab lab today. Explain the diagram below:

For 7 September (Thursday)
We will have a quick quiz on Thursday.
Your group should mount-up the cores taken yesterday. Getting the mounting right it is crucial, the cores and data will outlast us and the old oaks so we need to exercise the utmost care though the work on these samples.
Read the short sections on tree-rings in Ruddiman (p. 361-364 and a few paragraphs in Chapter 3). Also take a look at the Fritts (1976) reading on the principles of tree rings and climate. Think about this material in conjunction with the Kline Farm (KF) site that we are working on.The data we generate in this class will be analyzed by us and sent to others who will use it in their studies. One of our primary collaborators is Ed Cook of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory – go to the web and write a bit about Ed’s accomplishments in the field of tree rings and climate. One of his contributions is shown below – we will discuss this in class with respect to the work we did yesterday.

The conceptual equation above is the Principle of Aggregate of Tree Growth.
Explain each of the parameters and how they apply to what we are trying to do at the Kline Farm (KF) site.

Prep. Questions for 14 September
Please finish up marking the KF cores – also be sure that they are double checked in terms of the marking. Next lab period will be spent mapping the location of the trees and starting measuring ring widths.
1 – Below (blowup) is the del O-18 record from ocean cores. Be sure to write out and understand what the del O-18 is and how it is measured.
2 – Who is Harold Urey and what was his role in understanding the utility of oxygen isotopes.
3 – On 21 September you will be giving short Powerpoint presentations on various Quaternary dating techniques that we do not cover in class. They could include: lichenometry, Uranium-Thorium, paleomagneticism, cosmogenic isotopic dating, amino acid racemization and others. I will have a list and sign-up sheet during class next time.

Prep. Questions for 19 September
Please finish up marking the KF cores – also be sure that they are double checked in terms of the marking. Next lab period will be spent mapping the location of the trees and starting measuring ring widths.
We will have a quiz on Tuesday at the beginning of class
1 – Sign up to give a dating presentation next Thursday (21 September) and sign-up sheet during class next time.
2 – Be sure to be able to explain the geologic and modern carbon cycle.
3 – Be sure to be able to explain the three Milankovitch cycles and how they conspire to change solar insolation over time. Be able to explain the diagram below.

Prep. Questions for 21 September
Keep working on the cores – please be sure that the surface of the cores is well-sanded. Keep in mind that Jean is keeping a running tally of terms and acronyms used in the class – this is meant to be a resource for you and is a great place to look for studying for quizzes and exams.
Thursday we will be hearing from you – you will be giving a presentation on your chosen dating method. Have a powerpoint ready to go – please email it to me before 9AM on Thursday. Plan on a 5-minute presentation.

1 – I will be discussing tree-ring and radiocarbon dating. Take a look at the diagram below and be sure you are clear about the transformations that take place as nitrogen-14 is transformed into carbon-14 and then how carbon-14 transforms back into nitrogen-14.

Today will be a fieldtrip to some of the sites we have been working on over the years. Take a look at the Lutz et al. (in press) article and the Lehmann et al. (in prep.) articles as well as the handouts in this packet.
To do:
Not that the first exam is in or wake – we can focus on the cores from the KF site. Try to finish up measuring these cores this week and get me all the data that your group has worked up. I want to send out a letter of thanks and preliminary results to David Kline by Thursday. If group 1 could take the lead on writing the letter, group 2 on making a table of the cores and pertinent information, and group 3 (Eva’s) group work up a crude map we will send that along with the promise of a more comprehensive report as we analyze the data. Please get busy on this – we will talk more about t tomorrow in class.
Now for the trip at hand.
Stop 1: Browns Lake and the bog. Introduction to ACC and tile probing.
Stop 2: Peat farms in the area. Perhaps a quick trip to the Lake District.
Stop 3: Glacial Lake Craigton and the core in-house that we will analyze.
Stop 5: OARDC climate site – the instruments and the data that we will use to compare with the tree-ring records.
Stop 6: If time allows, I want to zoom North to Johnson Woods.

Prep. Questions for 9 October 2006
Lab on Monday will be a winning combination of lecture and core work. Please had in your 1 – 2 page write-up on the radiocarbon calibration. We will all sign a letter to David Kline and send that off to him to update him on our progress on the KF site. Think about potential projects for this class. You can talk to me anytime about your ideas. The final product will be a 6-10 page paper – total with figures and references included. I want you either to collect data or analyze an existing data set. You are welcome to use any data that we have in-house or download it from the web.
Monday I will Introduce the World of Lake Cores.
Read Ruddiman – pages 55-64, 284-286 and the attached article by Battarbee (2000).

Prep. Questions for 12 October 2006
We will have a quick quiz on Thursday – you should begin reading Alley’s book Two Mile Time Machine.
Go over the attached COFECHA output and (1) be sure that all the cores are in this data set, and (2) fix any problems that are fixable.
On Thursday we will generate a master chronology for the KF site and begin to compare the tree-ring data with the OARDC met data. This is a crucial step in identifying the climate signal for the site.
Today in class through a discussion of lake sediments and their value to Climate Change science we will introduce the Abrupt Climate Changes (ACC) the Younger Dryas and the 8200 event. Know what these are and why they are important – go to your text, to Alley and to the Web.

Prep. Questions for 19 October 2006
1 – Continue reading Richard Alley’s book - we will discuss it when you return from break. Much of it may be a review for you, but that is a good thing.
2 – Come up with a topic for your project, the final report can be in the form of a poster or a 6-10 page paper (total length with figures and references etc.). Go to the guidelines for writing geology papers on the course web page for formatting. I will also go over this in class. We will be assembling a poster for the KF site as a class so you will become familiar with using Powerpoint for constructing a poster
3 – Choosing a topic for the project is the biggest challenge. You can use published datasets you find on the web, you can tree-ring date some of the houses we have recently cored, you can work with the oak data from NE Ohio, you can write a paper on the politics of climate change, etc. Come up with an idea and a plan. I want you to formerly submit a one-page description of your topic by next Thursday. I encourage you to come talk to me or email me about possible topics.

Prep. Questions for 30 October 2006 (Monday)
1 – Continue Reading Alley and read the attached Nature article.
2 – We will have a quick quiz at the start of lab Monday – by Tuesday (31 Oct.) you all need to hand me a page describing your project.
3 – Below is our schedule for the trip to Byrd Polar Research Center – I plan to leave for the Center at 12 noon on 6 Nov. (Monday) and return about 5 pm. Lonnie Thompson will show us the ice core lab – who is he and what are some of his contributions to the science?
4 – Our discussion turns to ice cores below is the global mean meteoric water line – what is it? And what is its utility in the ice core business.

COLLEGE OF WOOSTER
GROUP TOUR OF THE
BYRD POLAR RESEARCH CENTER
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 20061:30 PM Meet on the Front Porch of Scott Hall – welcome by Barry Lyons (director)
1:35-1:50 PM U.S. Polar Rock Repository
1:55-2:30PM Ice Core Paleoclimate Lab
2:30-2:50 PM Remote Sensing Lab

Prep. Questions for 2 November 2006
1 – Read the review article by Lonnie Thompson – from the introductory material in the article what is the role of the tropics in climate change? What are the places that tropical ice cores have been recovered. What do these records show?
2 – We now need to bring in the role of ENSO into the discussion. Go to your text and various websites – what is ENSO? And how does it operate.
3 – On Monday we will be visiting the Ice Core Paleoclimatology Group and the Remote Sensing Lab. Go to the Byrd Polar Research Center Web Page (http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/) and read about these groups. This is out chance to ask the experts what they think about the trends in the changes noted in Greenland and Antarctica. Draft a list of questions to ask them. In the wake of the British announcement yesterday – the fundamental questions like “ is the Greenland Icesheet disappearing?” are the most relevant.

Prep. Questions for 6 November 2006
1 – Monday is the trip to Byrd Polar – the vans will be leaving at noon sharp and we will return between 4:30 to 5:00.
2 – Read the attached article. By now you realize that the climate system not only gradually changes its character, but also is noted for its Abrupt Change. These changes have received lots of attention from Browns Lake Bog to the Andes. Read Thompson et al. and outline what the major points are that he makes based on years of coring and analyzing ice from the tropical regions of the world. How are these conclusions relevant to the discussion about global warming ad what to do about it?
3 – On 8 November the Campus Ministries will sponsor a showing of Inconvenient Truth.
Lonnie Thompson’s work is heavily cited in the film. Plan on attending it will be in the Mateer Auditorium a 7-9pm. There will be a brief discussion following the show with a panel of experts from religion, economics and geology.

Read the article in Scientific American by Bill Ruddiman. This article was written only two years ago, but has fundamentally changed the way we think about the Anthopogenic Era or the Anthropocene.
- How does Ruddiman use ice core records to discuss his ideas?
- How are plagues linked to the carbon cycle?
- Write down questions that you have about the reading.
Not everyone agrees with Ruddiman’s ideas – go to the web and see if you can locate comments and critiques of this article.
Ruddiman has recently written a book outlining his ideas. He will be a speaker at the College on 7 February – you will not want to miss this.

Prep. Questions for 9 November – Topics for the Exam (Thursday 9 Nov.)
- Fundamental of ENSO
- Ice Core Dating
- The Vostok Record
- Lonnie Thompson
- The KF site and increased growth rates – possible reasons and implications
- Richard Alley
- Abrupt Climate Change (ACC)
- Isotopes in snow and ice
- Messages from tropical ice cores
- The state of Greenland and Antarctica
- Lake sediments and proxies

Read the EOS article on Testing the Glacial Lake Agassiz drainage hypothesis. Tom will be here on Thursday to give a GEOCLUB talk and do some coring.
1 – What methods are used to determine the timing of drainage of Glacial Lake Agassiz?
2- How are the THC shown below potentially related to climate change and the Younger Dryas?
3 – Recent work by oceanographers has suggested that the THC may be changing – go to the web and see what the latest on that thinking is – Wikipedia is a place to start.

CLIMATE CHANGE 2006 For 28 Nov. (Monday)
Lab Monday will involve continuing to pick and identify macros in the Odell Lake core.
On Tuesday we will begin by discussing the Broecker article.
1 – There is a lot of ground to cover in Broecker (2005), but these are the issues we need to cover until the end of the class.
2 – Write out some questions that you have on the article.
3 – How does he argue that we should do something about climate change.
4 – What do you think about his conclusions and recommendations?

For 29 Nov. (Tuesday)
1 – We will start class tomorrow with a quiz.
2 – Keep in mind that next Monday – you will present you research/field projects to the class. Keep the presentations to 10 minutes with 5 minutes for discussion.
3 – On Thursday – I would like to have a draft of your project. You are not required to give me this – but it is in your best interest to do so, especially if you are struggling. Keep in mind that it is a 6-10-page write up with the project that is due on 7 Dec. and your presentation on Monday 4 Dec.
4 – I have attached another short article that follows up with Tom Lowell’s EOS article and presentation two weeks ago. In addition to the possible changes in THC what does Broecker draw on to teleconnect the ACCs globally?

Read the article on the changes brought about by warming in the Arctic (Chapin et al.2005). The remainder of the course will be concerned with impacts of global climate change and some of the politics and economics.
Put the following on your calendar:
1 - Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio (G.E.O.), in Columbus, will present “Sustainable Energy Puts America to Work” on Thursday, Nov. 30, at The College of Wooster. The lecture, which is part of the “Sustainable Wooster, Sustainable World” series, begins at 7 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.). Admission is free and open to the public.
2 – Presentation (required) by David Cellebreze (Ohio Environmental Council) who will talk about Ohio’s Climate Roadmap – talk in Scovel 105 at 7PM on Monday evening (4 Dec.).

For 4 December 2006 (Monday).
Below is an important graphic from the IPCC 2001 report – think about it we will go over it in class.
- Tonight is the talk by Bill Spratley (GEO) and Monday at 7 pm in Scovel 105 – David Cellebreze (OEC) will present a 0.5 hour talk on energy in Ohio and then lead a discussion. The document he just sent me from the Pew Foundation should be read to gai a background for his work.
- You will be giving a talk/ poster on Monday keep it short (5-10 minutes) and we will make up the balance of the period with me talking.