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Using the following videos as well as your own research in the Brock library or appropriate websites, to answer the following questions. 1. Watch - TVO – The Agenda: Great Lakes, Global Warming, and Crazy Weather (25 min) Available online: https://www.tvo.org/video/great-lakes-global-warmi... or https://www.tvo.org/video/great-lakes-global-warmi... 2. Watch - Weather Network - 2x Faster Great Lakes (5 min) 3. Optional - PBS – Great Lakes Now: Understanding the impact of Climate Change (55min) Available online: https://www.pbs.org/video/great-lakes-now-understa... Questions (5 x5 marks = 25 marks) 1. Identify and describe the change(s) projected for the Great Lakes basin with regard five (5) of the following: a. Weather – Precipitation b. Weather – Temperature c. Weather – Extreme events d. Lake Ecosystem - Duration and Extent of ice cover e. Lake Ecosystem - Fisheries f. Lake Ecosystem - Lake levels g. Lake Ecosystem – Water quality h. Human ecosystem – Shipping i. Human ecosystem – Hydropower j. Human Ecosystem – Coastal Infrastructure geog_2p08_assignment__3_climate_water_resources_final.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Department of Geography and Tourism Studies GEOG 2P08: Climate Crisis (Spring 2020) Assignment #3 – Climate Change and Water Resources As a resource, water is so prevalent and common in our society that many people in North America take it for granted. However, when there is too little of it or too much of it, it becomes a significant problem for us. Freshwater is critically to humans in very obvious ways such as water for cooking and drinking but also in many, unseen or little thought of ways such as redistributing heat energy around the planet. As a species, humans will feel and/or experience the first effects of climate change through the impact on water resources. Catastrophic flooding (e.g. Calgary 2013) and severe drought (e.g. British Columbia 2015) highlight the importance of water and water management because these extreme conditions cause billions of dollars in damage or impact to the local, regional or national economies. When combined with deteriorating water quality and increasing demand due to growing populations, the impact of climate change on freshwater resources adds an even more complex and disturbing dynamic to freshwater management. The IPCC considers freshwater ecosystems among the most vulnerable to a changing climate and current projections suggest that significant ecological impacts will be evident by 2050. The change in climate will manifest in different freshwater ecosystems over a spectrum of ways including warmer waters (Reilly et al, 2015), altered ice cover (Assel et al, 2003), shift in ecosystem composition (Collingsworth et al, 2017) and harmful algal blooms (Wells et al, 2015). Maberly et al (2020) used satellite data to determine water temperatures and classify lakes into nine different thermal regimes. When related to model climate change projections, it was found under the worst case scenario average lake temperatures will increase by 4oC and over 65\% of lakes around the world will shift to a warmer thermal regime than they are currently in. Northern lakes, where even small changes in water temperatures can have significant negative impacts, were found to be particularly sensitive and under the worst-case scenario, there was nearly an 80\% reduction in the number of lakes in the northernmost thermal region. The warming would place tremendous stress on cold water species such as salmon, trout and char which are both ecologically and economically important (Maberly, et al, (2020). The IPCC has stated that there is high confidence that wet regions and seasons will become wetter and dry regions and seasons become drier (Cisneros et al, 2014). Recent work by NASA (2018) is already revealing a shift in the distribution global freshwater that supports the projections for the hydrologic cycle under climate change. The research found that 14 years of data (2002 – 2016) from the GRACE mission, which tracks global trends in freshwater ,that land areas on Earth that are already wet such as the tropics and higher latitudes are getting wetter while dry areas including regions near the sub-tropical highs are getting drier due to a variety of factors, including climate change. In some areas such as those with melting glacial ice the link to a warming climate is quite clear but in other areas separating the climate signal from other factors will require more research. It was noted that although the pattern in the GRACE data does fit the IPCC projections, a much longer dataset will be required to say definitively that climate change is the driver (Rodel et al, 2018). Canadians can’t expect our freshwater resources to not be impacted by climate change. Research has already shown that water resources in Southern Canada are already decreasing (StatsCan, 2010). Within this zone, the Great Lakes represent a critical water supply for millions of people and some would argue that the lakes are already experiencing the effects of a changing climate (Hayhoe et al, 2010; Field, 2019) The Great Lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior — make up the largest freshwater system on the planet. The lakes hold about 20\% of the world’s freshwater or about 22.7 quadrillion liters of water that approximately 34 million people in Canada and the United States utilize for drinking water, agriculture, recreational activities, energy generation, industry, food supply and transportation. The lakes are a critical economic driver that employs millions of people and generates trillions of dollars. The lakes however also face a variety of threats and challenges including a growing population, pollution and invasive species (Sly, 2006; EPA, 2019; NOAA, 2020; Michigan Sea Grant; 2020) Using the following videos as well as your own research in the Brock library or appropriate websites, to answer the following questions. 1. Watch - TVO – The Agenda: Great Lakes, Global Warming, and Crazy Weather (25 min) Available online: https://www.tvo.org/video/great-lakes-global-warming-and-crazy-weather or https://www.tvo.org/video/great-lakes-global-warming-and-crazy-weather 2. Watch - Weather Network - 2x Faster Great Lakes (5 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ae4swk7HBI 3. Optional - PBS – Great Lakes Now: Understanding the impact of Climate Change (55min) Available online: https://www.pbs.org/video/great-lakes-now-understanding-impactsclimate-change/ Questions (5 x5 marks = 25 marks) 1. Identify and describe the change(s) projected for the Great Lakes basin with regard five (5) of the following: a. Weather – Precipitation b. Weather – Temperature c. Weather – Extreme events d. Lake Ecosystem - Duration and Extent of ice cover e. Lake Ecosystem - Fisheries f. Lake Ecosystem - Lake levels g. Lake Ecosystem – Water quality h. Human ecosystem – Shipping i. Human ecosystem – Hydropower j. Human Ecosystem – Coastal Infrastructure Once you have answered all the questions save the document make sure you name & save it in the following format: e.g. GEOG2P08_#3_lastname_firstname_studentnumber e.g. GEOG2P08_#3_Smith_Steve_99887766 This is necessary so we don’t receive large numbers of files with the same or similar name e.g. geog2p08assignment3 Submitting your Assignment • • • Sign into Sakai Select the Assignments tab on the left hand menu Select the appropriate assignment number and attach your word document • • • Please attach a Word document (.doc or .docx). If you are submitting from a Mac, please dont submit a Pages document. In Mac Pages under the File pull-down menu, select Export as a word document. Due Date: May 23, 2020 References Assel et al (2003) Recent Trends in Laurentian Great Lakes Ice Cover. Climatic Change 57, 185-204 Available online: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022140604052 Cisneros, et al (2014) Freshwater resources. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Field et al. eds.) Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, pp. 229-269. Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568988315300615 Collingsworth et al (2017) Climate change as a long term stressor for the fisheries of the Laurentian Great lakes of North America. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 27, 363-391. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2019) – Facts and Figures about the Great Lakes. Available online: https://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/facts-and-figures-about-great-lakes Field, M. (2019) Researchers think they know what’s causing record water levels on and flooding around the Great Lakes: Climate change. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Available online: https://thebulletin.org/2019/09/researchers-think-they-know-whats-causing-record-water-levels-on-and-floodingaround-the-great-lakes-climate-change/ Government of Canada: Water Great Lakes - Great Lakes Drainage basin map https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/great-lakes-protection.html Hayhoe et al 2010 Regional climate change projections for Chicago and the US Great Lakes, Journal of Great Lakes Research, 36(2), 7-21. Available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0380133010000559?via\%3Dihub Maberly et al (2020) Global Thermal regions shift under climate change. Nature Communications 11, 123, Available online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15108-z Michigan Sea Grant (2020) Great Lakes fast facts. Available online: https://www.michiganseagrant.org/topics/great-lakes-fast-facts/ NASA (2015) Global Climate Change – Vital Signs of the Planet; News and Features – Articles - May 16, 2018. Study: Climate change rapidly warming world’ lakes, Available online: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2378/studyclimate-change-rapidly-warming-worlds-lakes/ NASA (2018) Global Climate Change – Vital Signs of the Planet; News and Features – Articles - May 16, 2018. NASA Satellites reveal major shifts in global freshwater. Available online: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2734/nasasatellites-reveal-major-shifts-in-global-freshwater/ NOAA 2020 Office for Coastal Management – Fast Facts: Great Lakes - https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fastfacts/great-lakes.html Reilly et al, (2015) Rapid and highly variable warming of lake surface waters around the globe. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(24), 10773-10781. Available online: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2015GL066235 Rodell et al (2018) Emerging trends in global freshwater availability. Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0123-1. Available online: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0123-1?proof=trueIn\%EF\%BB\%BF Sly, P. (2006) Canadian Encyclopedia - Great Lakes, Available online: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/great-lakes Statistics Canada (2010) Freshwater Supply and Demand in Canada, Available online: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/100913/dq100913b-eng.htm Vallis, M. (2010) National Post – News – Canada, Available online: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/statistics-canada-the-countrys-water-resources-are-declining Wells et al (2015) Harmful algal blooms and climate change: Learning from the past and present to forecast the future. Harmful Algae, 49, 68-93 ... Purchase answer to see full attachment