GEOG 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Water Cycle, Infrared, Fossil Fuel
Document Summary
Natural functions of forests, the world"s life support system. D) by human activity (industrial and nonindustrial plantations) Causes of tropical deforestation: industrial logging road construction. Carbon dioxide, water vapour, and several secondary gases absorb thermal infrared radiation released from the earth"s surface and the lower atmosphere. Heat and air temperature rises when absorption takes place. Greenhouse effect the capacity of the atmosphere to act like a greenhouse, trapping and absorbing longwave radiation and heat. Principal greenhouse gases are water vapour and carbon dioxide. Secondary greenhouse gases methane from animal digestion and bacteria, ozone and nitrogen oxides from urban air pollution, and chlorofluorocarbons from spray cans and fugitive refrigerants. Carbon dioxide is produced mainly by natural processes such as volcanoes and rock weathering, and is recycled through the atmosphere by the biological processes of respiration and photosynthesis. Human sources of carbon dioxide fall into two major classes:
