Wabash River Watershed - Term Paper Example

Paper Title: Wabash river watershed [Name of Student] [Name of lecturer] [course title] Earth Science and Society [Date] [Name of Affiliate Institution] Global warming has been defined as the gradual increase in atmospheric and oceanic temperature believed to be caused by increase in the green house gases. The increase in the green house gases is due to increased pollution in the atmosphere has resulted in global warming also referred to as the green house effect. These green house gasses include carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4, nitrous oxide N2O, ozone O3 and CFCs (chloro fluoro carbons). These gases are generally found in the atmosphere but there levels have been increasing at an alarming rate to the level where they are believed to have contributed to changes in climate at local and international levels. The changes in the average atmospheric temperatures are not natural where gases are continuously released to the atmosphere through natural processes e.g. respiration or decomposition but instead human activities have contributed a great deal. The largest culprit of these gases is carbon monoxide which is found in the atmosphere at 0.04% of all the gases. Climatic changes over long periods usually occur but vary greatly; the only difference with global warming is that it is projected to increase gradually without going down as is the usual (Burroughs, 2001). These human mediated or constantly referred to as anthropogenic factors include excessive use of fossil fuels, farming like keeping of large number of cattle, destruction of forests and mangroves that ameliorate pollution, and industrialization. These extensive actions aimed at improving the livelihoods are also believed to counter natural atmospheric processes. When using fossil fuels in industrialization gases are released when burning of these fuels and released to the atmosphere. When fossil fuels are burned e.g. petroleum certain gases are release to the atmosphere including carbon dioxide and due to increases burning the rate at which they are being released is very high causing pollution. Some of the most industrialized nations are known to have a fog in the morning or a whitish cloud due to pollution from extreme industrialization. Some extensive farming especially keeping of cattle is believed to contribute to increased methane gas in the atmosphere. This is because cattle exhale methane and when kept in large numbers the quantity of methane becomes high. Another factor is that of poor waste management especially in open pits which contributes to increased methane produced from the process of decomposition. Open pit waste disposal especially contributes increased release of gases to the atmosphere hence believed to contribute to the green house effect. Destruction of forests where most of carbon dioxide is removed also contributes to imbalance in atmospheric atmosphere and carbon dioxide as more is released than the environment can take away. These human activities contribute to changes in the atmospheric gases to a level where the effects are detrimental. The result of global warming is causing and is projected to cause a myriad of effects. It is believed that with increased temperatures the glaciers are receding in size due to increased melting. These glaciers contribute to the global climate by melting and evaporating hence causing rain in other parts of the world. Increased melting affects the animals that live here as well through habitat change. The sea levels are also expected to rise with humans being displaced by sea water caused by increased rainfall in some areas. Increased rainfall than normal i.e. El Niño may cause flooding events. Other areas are expected to have increased deserts. The result is less amount of fresh water supply as sea water is salty and increased drought conditions which implies food and water scarcity. The plant and animal diversity is also likely to change with possible extinctions of some important biological organisms hence destabilizing ecosystems food chains. Some of these effects however are projections to the potential future damages to the environment. This paper intends to look at data of Wabash rover watershed since 1961-1990 on changes in climatic factors and whether they reflection on climate change is actually happening. This study will help look at the changes from a period of minimal climatic effect in 1960 to changes that have occurred currently and the likelihood of mankind contributing to these changes (Seneviratne et al., 2012). Wabash river watershed is an area of about 33,000 square miles and covers several cities including Indianapolis, Champaign, Urbana, Terre Haute, Lafayette and Vincennes. The watershed is found in countries in North America and is a source of water to these towns. The watershed is located in Indiana draining approximately 1438 square miles in several counties. The main activities around this watershed include agricultural farming; fishing and these human activities have contributed to destruction of the habitat through deforestation, overfishing, electricity production and industries. There are reports of increased flooding in the habitat in recent times which has impacted on the watershed with increased siltation in the lake (Skibsted, 2012). The 1960-1990 data was analyzed and interpreted in relation to global warming to ascertain whether indeed there are changes in temperature variations from the threshold and whether human activities around the area may be the cause. The findings of the data assessment are discussed herein. When looking at overall warming in the environment we talk about a general or gradual change in the environmental temperature from the threshold. The average maximum temperatures experienced show that at the beginning and the end of this period 1960-1990 the temperatures were nearly as high and therefore only observable changes at a short period. Therefore this cannot be used to conclude an increase or decrease as such but probably could explain the drastic changes that occur to weather and are normal. The average minimum temperature showed an increased in the period 80s and the average of the minimum and maximum temperatures may allow a conclusion that there is actually a general rise in temperature that can be said to be global warming. The data shows that the range in temperatures is declining due to increases in the night-time temperatures hence the range declines because the range is becoming smaller and smaller. This supports the theory that there is more pronounced minimum than maximum temperatures which decrease the difference between the two referred to as range. With increased temperatures there is bound to be more evaporation to the atmosphere and hence increased precipitation. This is highly likely in the ocean than in the continents areas hence theorists claim there will be increased drought and water shortages, from the data it shows increases in precipitation with the highest recorded at the end of this period in the 80s. However, there is no evidence of decreased rainfall in the continents from the data. This means that the winds have enough energy to carry moisture inland and equally get as much rain these winds coming from the Gulf of Mexico. The data does not also support that there is a difference in temperatures in the Northern hemisphere than in the tropics which is what causes imbalance and hence drought. Also drought is not just a factor of rainfall but also of precipitation and evaporation where we have low rainfall and high evaporation and therefore in looking at drought conditions one must consider both the rate of evaporation above the amounts of rainfall. There are actually high precipitation events occurring regularly causing flooding and frequent flooding occurrence in Wabash area. Both the low and high precipitation days have increased from 1960 and the low precipitation days have increased by about 10% from 168 to 184. According to global warming, a warming climate has increasing temperatures which warm the earth and the water masses causing increased evapotranspiration from land surface and plants. This increased evaporation causes a high humidity in the atmosphere that may cause increased amounts of precipitation and increased days where there is rain. Therefore in a warming climate in Wabash river watershed there is bound to be an increase in stream flow followed by a decrease. This is because increased temperatures will cause the river to have increased flow from the snow feeding the streams because more snow will melt and this will increase the flow into the river. Wabash area presents an increase in surplus and deficits in evapotranspiration which cannot explain for global warming. There is surplus moisture to the atmosphere due to increased temperatures and there is also recorded reduction in deficit of moisture to the atmosphere. This means there is increased evapotranspiration to the atmosphere and which would result in increased rainfall hence cannot support the drought theory. Evapotranspiration also precluded precipitation and therefore does not agree with the theories of global warming. Runoff increased with a margin of almost 2mm difference in surface runoff (SRO) which also disagrees with the theory of increased drought that results in reduced runoff from the river. This data, by itself, would not appear to agree with the consequences of global warming, as we have understood them to this point. With a warming climate we expect that there will be higher evapotranspiration and lower rainfall with evapotranspiration being higher than rainfall but this is not the case. Research is all about creating hypotheses about an environmental issue and going ahead to collect data that will help support or reject the hypothesis claimed. With global warming there are many theories which can be treated as hypotheses and base for research. Data must be collected to support such claims and this data should be sufficient and quantitative. In climatic data a researcher may have data on precipitation, humidity, runoff, temperatures and other aspects that relate to climate. This are further tested using scientific tests to support a claim. Researching is fundamental if a researcher is to support or reject any claim or thesis and it reduces arguments or talks that are theories and makes theories to be actualized. Research on environmental issues like global warming reduces speculations as past events are used to predict for future occurrences. Also in research it is important to group data into levels that help identify anomalies. Research and proper research guides scientists and opens up to truth or possibilities about theories on environmental issues. Relying on heresy or arguments even in scientific workshops or form reliable environmental organizations is not enough and any researcher can go further and verify the truth about a claim. Wabash river watershed being in the Northern hemisphere, more data can be collected on the glaciers that could be feeding into the streams in this watershed to find out if they are contributing to the stream flow and give a holistic view of this watershed in relation to global warming. The extent of human activities and the amount of green house gases feeding into the atmosphere can also be assessed to find out if they are above threshold and also be linked to any changes in the climate of Wabash area. This data may be more long term than short term as climate change occurs over long periods of time. The implications of this study are that the climate change theory has been generalized and may not be true on a localized level. Most of the data and graphs used to justify global warming are normally simulated on a global scale but need to be proven at localized level to show significance. Therefore more research may be done to show whether other areas show similar results or prove certain theories of global warming to hold ground. In linking climate trends to human forcing it is a more complex process as a researcher may need to show the relationship between the human activity and the cause of climatic change. Therefore even in the “small ice age” period in Wabash river watershed, there is no human activity that can be shown in this period that is a cause to changes in temperature in that period and this may require further research on the same. Therefore probably with more research and inclusion of more data that can help link climatic changes and global warming; scientist may help in justifying global warming and climatic trends in the Wabash river watershed. References Buroughs, W. J. (2001). Climate change multidisciplinary approach. New York: Cambridge University press. Seneviratne, S.I., N. Nicholls, D. Easterling, C.M. Goodess, S. Kanae, J. Kossin, Y. Luo, J. Marengo, K. McInnes, M. Rahimi, M. Reichstein, A. Sorteberg, C. Vera, and X. Zhang, 2012: Changes in climate extremes and their impacts on the natural physical environment. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. Field, C.B., V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D.J. Dokken, K.L. Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA, pp. 109-230. Skibsted, R. (2012). Wabash river strategic plan. National great rivers research and education centre office of lieutenant governor Sheila Simon. Retrieved from http://www.ohioriverbasin.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Wabash-River-Strategic-Plan-Draft-1.pdf Read More