GLY 3074- The Oceans and Global Climate Change

Exam 2- Study Guide- Spring 2009

The second exam is scheduled for Wed., Feb. 25.  It will focus on material covered since the last exam. This means you may need to apply some of the knowledge you acquired during the first part of the course, but I will not ask specific questions on that material.

 

The topics covered since the first exam include: 1) surface ocean circulation, 2) deep ocean circulation, 3) ENSO, and 4) productivity in the ocean .  This includes the material from Chapt. 4 and 5, pp 294-296, 306-312, 153-158.  As for the first exam, I can’t promise that everything on the exam will be covered in this study guide, but if you are comfortable with the material on the guide, you should be able to do well on the exam.

 

The exam will have the same format as before-  several fill in the blank/multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and one longer answer questions.  As before you will only need to answer 6 out of 7 short answer and 1 out of 2 longer answer questions.


Study Guide



Surface Ocean Circulation (Chapt. 5)

How is the “surface” ocean defined?
What drives surface water circulation?
What is Ekman transport?
What is the pressure gradient force?
What is geostrophic flow?
Why does the water flow around the periphery of the ocean basin basins rather than spiraling into the center?
Know the basic surface ocean circulation patterns- the 5 gyres and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
What currents occur in the equatorial region?
What are the differences between eastern and western boundary currents, and why do those differences exist?
Where are you likely to find divergences and convergences in the ocean?  What processes create these conditions?  Why are divergences and convergences important?


Deep Water Circulation

What drives deep water circulation?

Where do deep waters get their characteristic temperatures and salinities?

What are the 7 most common salts in the ocean and what form are they in?

What determines the density of water?

What are the mixed layer and the thermocline?  How does the depth of the mixed layer and the shape of the thermocline vary with location (ideally at least)?

What are water masses?

What are the major deep water masses in the oceans?

Where does the deep water form today that fills the deep Atlantic, Pacific and Indian basins and why?

Where does intermediate water form today, and why?

Be able to draw a cross section through the Atlantic and identify the major water masses and their flow directions.

What path does that water take as it travels through the ocean (the global conveyor)?

What happens to the water and its chemistry as it travels along that path? How do we get a sense of how “old” the water is (how long it’s been away from the surface)?

What role does deep water circulation play in controlling climate?
 

ENSO
What does “ENSO” stand for?
What is the southern oscillation?
What is the Walker Cell?
What are the differences in normal and ENSO conditions in terms of: low and high pressure systems, trade wind strengths, counter current strength, upwelling, sea surface temperature distribution across the equatorial Pacific (and SST anomalies), sea surface height across the equatorial Pacific, rain distribution, and the depth of the thermocline?

What is the typical pattern of evolution of an ENSO event?

How do ENSO events effect ocean prodcutivity near Peru?

What is measured to determine the Southern Oscillation Index that is used to predict the development of ENSO events?

How frequently do ENSO events occur?

Teleconnections refer to weather patterns that are effected by ENSO outside of the immediate region of the equatorial Pacific.What are some of these weather patterns?

What are conditions like in Florida during ENSO years? During La Nina years?

Where are we in terms of ENSO today?


 

Productivity in the Ocean

Who are the primary producers of the ocean?

What are their requirements for existence?

Know the simple photosynthetic reaction.

What processes are depicted by the reverse reaction to photosynthesis?

What is the primary limiting nutrient in the ocean? What are some of the reasons it is limiting?
Where do nutrients (carbon, nitrate, phosphate) in the ocean come from?
What do profiles of oxygen and nutrients look like in the ocean and why?
Under what conditions is the necessary combination of light and nutrients achieved? In other words, where are the moderate and high (eutrophic) productivity regions of the ocean?
Where are the low productivity (oligotrophic) regions of the ocean? Why?
What is meant by the term “the biological pump”?
During what season does maximum productivity occur in the tropics, temperate and polar regions, and why?