Earth System Science

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Earth System Science
Geog788W Group 1 Fall 2004
Jyoteshwar Nagol Haihong Yang Alina Yohannan
Lars Bromley Justin Goldstein Andrew Johnston

• It is hard to imagine a more important
  discipline than Earth System Science John
  Lawton in Science magazine, June 15, 2001

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Earth Systems Science is the study of

• Interactions between oceans, atmosphere, living
  things, geologic processes, land surface
  dynamics, and human systems.
• Processes that connect biological, physical, and
  human systems operating near the Earth's surface.
• How interrelationships between physical and
  biological systems impact each other and lead to
  changes.

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Earth Systems Science
A prime focus of Earth System Science is the
study of past and future changes in Earth
systems Paleoclimate, Global warming.
Strategies have been developed to address climate
change. (Group 3) Special attention is paid to
how human activities lead to changes in linkages
between systems and the response from humans to
those changes Global Change research. (Group
1) Range of topics dealing with the carbon
cycle, water cycle, food production,
biodiversity, land-use change and its feedbacks
on climate change and variability. ESS studies
many different systems, each defined by its own
sets of characteristics and subsystems. Physical
systems atmospheric chemistry, cryosphere,
hydrosphere, energy transfer. Biological systems
marine life, terrestrial ecosystems,
biogeochemistry. Humans land use, atmospheric
changes. External forces volcanism, sun, solar
system (orbital mechanics, impacts).
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Geospheres
Atmosphere
Anthroposphere
Biosphere
Hydrosphere
Lithosphere and Pedosphere
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How is Earth System Science performed?

• System Science grew from work in biology and
  other fields in the mid- 1900s, applied to Earth
  Science in the 1990s. (Group 1)
• In ESS simplified models are created to describe
  connections between biological, physical, and
  human systems. Bretherton diagram.(Group 1)
• The Earth system is a network of self-organizing
  systems connected by flows of gasses, energy,
  nutrients. The global system Gaia. (Group 2)
• Most ESS research projects are focused on small
  parts of the Earth system.
• Remote Sensing is a key part of ESS NASAs Earth
  Science program.

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How is ESS different from other types of science?

• ESS deals with the relationships between physical
  and biological systems instead of the systems
  themselves.
• Earth System Science uses holistic rather than
  reductionist approaches.
• Earth System Science is interdisciplinary,
  including many academic disciplines No single
  discipline can fully address the scope of ESS.

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Geography and Earth System Science
Earth System Science is inherently spatial. It
uses many scales space (from the particle to
global) and in time. The interdisciplinary
nature of the science and its focus on
connections between systems makes it attractive
to geographers.
Mitchell K. Hobish, Earth Systems Science,
Section 16, Remote Sensing Tutorial
http//rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect16/Sect16_3.html
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Development of ESS 19th Century

• John Lawton wrote in Science (2001) ESS is still
  a young and growing field (Science, 292 Issue
  5524, v1965, June 15, 2001).
• 1802 John Playfair expounds on the life work of
  James Hutton The Principle of Uniformitarianism
  and the radical idea that present is the key to
  the past.
• 1832 Lyall also builds on Hutton to describe
  earth processes
• Agassiz et al. 1840 glaciers responsible for
  forming large scale landscapes
• William Morris Davis describes the Geographical
  Cycle and contributes to geomorphology
• Source All bullets except the first taken from
  http//geog.queensu.ca/gilbert/Supplementary
  Reading Lecture 201.pdf

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Development of ESS 20th Century
With an emergence of systems science (or systems
theory) scientists focused more on interactions
between components of systems rather than
single-discipline studies. Advances in nuclear
physics led scientists to more effectively
measure the age of the Earth (http//geog.queensu.
ca/gilbert/Supplementary Reading Lecture
201.pdf) 1980s scientists understand that
humans are altering the physical sphere and thus
try to understand global change as involving
integrated human and physical systems. Beginning
of the use of the term Earth System Science.
(http//www.usra.edu/iai/scotland.html) 1986
Francis P. Bretherton (U. of Wisconsin) developed
the Bretherton Diagram as chair of a committee
which authored a seminal work in the modern ESS
field "Earth System Science A Closer View."
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The Bretherton Diagram- Complex
Mitchell K. Hobish, Earth Systems Science,
Section 16, Remote Sensing Tutorial
http//rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect16/Sect16_3.html
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The Bretherton Diagram- Simplified
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The Bretherton Diagram- Explained

• The diagram depicts the Earth System and is
  comprised of sub-systems (in turn comprised of
  sub-systems, etc.)
• Given its roots in system science, the
  sub-systems and their interconnections,
  couplings, and dynamics are equally emphasized -
  when one system acts another reacts, etc.

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The Bretherton Diagram- Main Components

• 1) The Physical Climate System
• 2) Biogeochemical Cycles
• Within these broad areas are sub-systems
  atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and the
  human dimension.
• Because output from one system is the input into
  another, none of these categories can be
  evaluated in isolation.

Source What is Earth System Science? Donald R.
Johnson, Martin Ruzek, Michael Kalb. Proceedings
of the 1997 International Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Symposium. Singapore, August 4 - 8, 1997.
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Sub-System Example Ocean Circulation
Source Ocean Modeling. Center for Climate System
Research, University of Tokyo.
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Bretherton Diagram Temporal Scales

• Processes throughout the Earth system operate at
  different temporal scales
• millions/billions of years evolution of solid
  earth structures, atmosphere, etc.
• hundreds of thousands to millions climate
  oscillations, species distribution, soil
  development, etc.
• decades to centuries physical climate system
  (weather patterns), some biochemical processes
  like carbon, nitrogen, etc.
• days/seasons Earth responds to weather, plant
  growth, decay
• day heating and cooling, catastrophic events
  (volcanoes, earthquakes)
• Source Global Change and Our Common Future
  Papers from a Forum Commission on Physical
  Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications. National
  Academies Press. 1989.

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Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change

• Global Change is concerned with the nature and
  consequences of anthropogenic perturbations in
  the interacting physical, chemical and biological
  and social systems that regulate the environment
  supporting human life and influence the quality
  of that life on planet Earth.
• Global change research initially focused almost
  solely on the physical and biological sciences,
  but in the last eight to ten years, there has
  been more recognition of the human dimensions and
  the essential role that social science must play
  in resolving global environmental problems.
• Three problems that have been given greatest
  attention -- climate change, ozone depletion,
  and loss of biodiversity -- are all anthropogenic
  in origin.
• Planning for social science research on the human
  dimensions of global environmental change began
  in 1986, significantly later than the planning
  for global change research in the natural
  sciences.

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Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change

• Human interactions are included in the Bretherton
  diagram, but only as a black box.
• Understanding of large scale environmental change
  requires an integrated view of how those spheres
  and humans interact mutually within the Earth
  System. Also needs the cooperation between
  natural and social scientists.
• The research of human interactions on global
  change and sustainability needs the equivalent of
  a Bretherton diagram to visually convey the
  interconnections among diverse cultural,
  economic, political, social, and institutional
  phenomena and to begin to relate these
  theoretically.

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Social Process Diagram
http//cesimo.ing.ula.ve/GAIA/SPD/spd_image.html