1.) Vascular plants sequestered large amounts of CO2 through photosynthesis when they first expanded across terrestrial environment, leading to glaciation. Evaluate the claim that a similar glaciation event occurred when the first plants colonized land. Be sure to consider weather or not photosynthesis by these new species alone caused glaciation.
The book states that the initial colonization of land by plants was followed by cooling and abrupt glaciation. The CO2 levels were 20 times higher than todays concentrations and would need to be reduced by 50% to cause glaciation. Though weathering could help contribute to a decrease in CO2 levels; not enough to cause glaciation. The book says that early plants lacked roots, but showed they still
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released organic acids that can increase rock weathering, but even with this fact added this alone could not decrease CO2 levels enough to cause glaciation either. The best contributor it states is that the increase rock weathering increased excess phosphorous that was released from weathering rocks and entered the ocean where it helped to grow algae which with the rapid growth of algae and the increase in CO2 uptake needed for the algae to carry out photosynthesis this could decrease the CO2 levels enough to cause a glaciation. 2.) Synthesizing what you have learned in this chapter, analyze the multiple effects the collision of two plates could have on the evolution of life on earth.
Effects that could be caused by the collision of two plates, one could be that previously isolated populations to connect with other previously isolated populations and allow interbreeding which could help contribute to evolution. Another effect could be that when two plates meet that there is less shore lines, meaning less wet land and a decrease in moisture; which could lead to a decrease in rock weathering. This decrease in rock weathering could also lead to a increase in CO2 concentration because CO2 is needed for weathering, this change in CO2 concentration could also result in climate change.
3.) Analyze the factors that may have contributed to the Cambrian explosion.
The book states that multicellularity arose independently, which could have helped contribute the explosion in diversity of organisms evolving. Also help contributing to diversity is sexual reproduction which allows greater genetic diversity through processes of meiosis and crossing over. Also, the book states that the Cambrian explosion was right after the third Snowball Earth event, so this means climates could have been better suitable and help contributed to the rapid expansion. These are a the few topics talked about leading up the Cambrian explosion which could of help play a factor in the rapid
expansion.
Tsunamis caused by the Earthquake leads to flooding along the coastal environment. This damages any homes. Flooding caused new lakes or sag ponds on the land. Increasing groundwater flow from springs and displacing stream channel. ("Flood Consequences")
Earthquakes are a natural part of the Earth’s evolution. Scientific evidence leads many geologists to believe that all of the land on Earth was at one point in time connected. Because of plate tectonic movements or earthquakes, continental drift occurred separating the one massive piece of land in to the seven major continents today. Further evidence supports this theory, starting with the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a large mass of plate tectonics, which are increasing the size of the Atlantic Ocean while shrinking the Pacific. Some scientists believe that the major plate moveme...
Both Allen (2008) and Hoffman (1998) then thought that the glaciation ended fast due to very high levels of carbon dioxide. According to Hoffman (1998) the carbon dioxide levels got higher because of release ...
SCHWENDENMANN, LUITGARD, and EDZO VELDKAMP. "Long-Term CO2 Production From Deeply Weathered Soils Of A Tropical Rain Forest: Evidence For A Potential Positive Feedback To Climate Warming." Global Change Biology 12.10 (2006): 1878-1893. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
... of tectonic plates that caused fault lines to move. This shift had a massive effect in changing the water currents of the oceans and even possibly influencing the atmospheric temperature.
The Magnificent North American Tectonic Plate Even though other global problems are bigger than Plate tectonics, the North American Plate took many years to form, is very divers, and is purely magnifect because a big part of our everyday life and the plate tectonic theory is one of the oldest theories known to man. There are also many different aspects to the North American Plate. There are regular basic facts about the plates, there are specific scientists that gathered and founded information about this plate and many others. There is the location of this plate and the plates surrounding it. There are multiple different types of boundaries that surround this plate.
Thesis: Forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
According to scientists, one of the most extraordinary bursts of evolution ever known was the Cambrian Explosion. For most of the nearly 4 billion years that life has existed on Earth, evolution produced little beyond bacteria, plankton, and multi-celled algae. Then, about between 570 and 530 million years ago, another burst of diversification occurred. This stunning period is termed the "Cambrian explosion," taking the name of the geological age in which the earlier part occurred. A recent study revealed that life evolved during the Cambrian Period at a rate about five times faster than today. But it was certainly not as rapid as an explosion; the changes seems to have taken around 30 million years, and some stages took 5 to 10 million years. The Cambrian explosion was a period of time where life evolved into numerous multifaceted organisms that developed into the vertebrates and human life as we know today.
...deposition and blanket of sediment kept the organisms compressed with little exposure to oxygen for decay. If life was predominately terrestrial during the Cambrian, the organisms predictably would have been left untouched after death long enough to decay, preventing the fine preservation of many soft-bodied organisms. Fortunately enough, it was marine life that dominated the Cambrian (Scott, et al., 2000).
...icot stem. Label and sketch its parts. Take note of the position of the vascular bundle.
Earth's floor then is sucked into deep ocean trenches creating a force, this called subduction. As two rock plates slide past one another a crack or fault develops, which prevents energy to form an earthquake. One of these plates are called Tectonic Plates. Tectonic Plates are pieces of crust moving around earth, pushing together, pulling apart and sliding past each other. The second plate is Plate Tectonics. This is when earth's crust is made up of rigid plate that "float" on molten layer of the mantle beneath earth's crust. Oceanic- oceanic plate is a similar plate that sinks under the other when the two plates converge. With these plates in motion, causes movement and the split of continents. As one plate moves, it cause other plates to move. The split between supercontinent led to divergent evolution, unique species formed in response to different environment conditions, this was the height of the age of
As the tectonic plates slide over each other, they cause earthquakes. Earthquakes produce various damaging effects, this includes damage to structures of buildings, bridges and other standing formations which then result in injuries and people getting killed, wildlife getting disrupted as well as humans. An earthquake can affect the earth as it’s easier to let the lava come out of the earth. Tsunamis- Can cause financial problems such as home loss, job loss which will then result in being homeless, loss of crops and food supplies which causes a lot of harm to us ‘humans’. A tsunami is a series of waves that send surges of water that can travel thousands of miles.
Justin: I don’t think that its true that human activities are not playing a role in this, if population was not exploding the Earth would have gone one the way it should, but rather it’s the destructive factors such as gases released into the atmosphere making the plant unhealthy are almost entirely man-made. Forest and oceans are disappearing because of the purposes for human life. And the greenhouse effect is fairly a natural occurrence and has been around since the Earth’s creation and is what keeps the Earth’s surface temperature at something that can be manageable for humans to survive, this same process can be enhanced negatively when pollutants and gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane get trapped in the atmosphere heat planet Earth up. All these things state a presence of human’s
The plants that we know today as terrestrial organisms were not always on land. The land plants of today can be linked back to aquatic organisms that existed millions of years ago. In fact, early fossil evidence shows that the earliest land plants could have arisen some 450 million years ago (Weng & Chappie 2010). Plants that used to reside strictly in water were able to adapt in ways that allowed them to move onto land. It is speculated the need for plants to move onto land was created by water drying up, causing plants to have less room and pushing them to move onto land. Although the exact cause of plant’s need to move to a terrestrial environment is unclear, it is known that plants had to undergo several adaptations to be able to live on land. These adaptations include: lignin, cellulose, suberin, and changes to plant’s surface, including the formation of a waxy cuticle.
Due to the fact that rocks are composed of high intensity of elastic and brittle material, they therefore store considerable amount of strain energy that results from elasticity, during the action of plate tectonic. The brittleness leads to development of concurrent cracks on the rocks as a result of plate’s action.