A classroom activity that teaches students about the different atmospheric aerosols and gases released during volcanic eruptions and how they can affect climate.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Volcanoes and Climate
Video lecture: Plant Responses to Climate Related Abiotic Stress
A video lecture that gives an overview of how vegetation responds to climate change in terms of phenotypic plasticity, range shifts, phenology, and population changes.
Teaching Module: Plant Response to Climate related Temperature and Water Stress
This teaching module allows students to explore the role of stomata in regulating leaf temperature and water loss from plants under different environmental and climatic conditions.
Reading: Photosynthesis and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
A reading that discusses the effects of elevated CO2 levels on the photosynthetic efficiency of field-grown plants.
Video micro-lecture: Phase Diagrams and Earth’s Climate
A video micro-lecture that describes the phase diagrams of water on Earth, Mars, and Venus. It also describes the water vapor feedback mechanism in the atmospheres of these planets that influences the greenhouse effect.
Video: Permafrost and Climate Change
A video that introduces permafrost and its distribution on Earth. The video also describes the changing nature of permafrost across several regions due to higher surface temperatures and the possible impact of permafrost thawing on Earth’s climate.
Visualization: pH Levels of Oceans and Atmospheric CO2
A visualization that allows students to explore changes in the pH levels of oceans for different levels of atmospheric CO2. It includes visualizations of CO2 concentrations corresponding to various emission scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Video micro-lecture: Ocean Buffer Chemistry
A video micro-lecture that explains carbonate buffering in the ocean. It includes discussions on the changes in the chemical composition of the ocean caused by a higher concentration of dissolved CO2, ocean acidification and the resulting effect on ocean biota.
Reading: Climate-Informed Development to Mitigate Global Poverty
A feature story on a comprehensive report by the World Bank that describes the threat of climate change to poor people and the ways to offset it through adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Reading: Natural Selection and Evolutionary Rescue of a Species
A reading that shows that climate change can be a selective pressure in natural selection. It explains how the selection of a character that provides an adaptive advantage in a changed environment, leads to the ‘evolutionary rescue’ of a species.
Video: Natural Selection and Climate Change
A video that shows that climate change can be a selective pressure in natural selection that can lead to the ‘evolutionary rescue’ of a species.
Video Micro-lecture: Modes of Vibration in Greenhouse Gas Molecules
A micro-lecture that describes the vibrational modes of polyatomic molecules, how these modes determine whether the molecules are IR inactive or IR active and explains why most IR active polyatomic gas molecules are greenhouse gases.
Reading: Molecular Vibration Modes and the Greenhouse Effect
A reading that discusses how chemical bonds in molecules respond to incident IR light and absorb IR energy during certain modes of vibration. The reading includes discussions on the vibrational modes of water vapor and carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules and explains why these gases act as greenhouse gases.
Classroom/Laboratory Activity: Carbon Dioxide and Photosynthetic Rates
A classroom/laboratory activity that shows how to measure the rate of photosynthesis and its changes under different conditions including high concentrations of carbon dioxide, a potential contributor to climate change.
Reading: Isotopic Compositions and Ice Cores
A reading that explains how the analyses of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes from ice cores determine past temperatures on Earth.