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This course will include lectures on atmospheric chemistry and the role of CO2 in climate, biology and water chemistry and lab exercises in the new CO2 lab in the E&ES department. The role of CO2 in earth processes is very large relative to the modest quantities of it that are present in the atmosphere. In this course we will study all aspects of the physics, chemistry and biology of CO2, and the course is structured around the new atmospheric CO2 monitoring facility in the E&ES department. Questions addressed: What is the role of CO2 in global climate (greenhouse gas)? How does photosynthesis work? How does CO2 acidify surface waters? How much CO2 is there on other planets? How has atmospheric CO2 varied over the course of earth history? What should we do to prevent further global warming--the Kyoto treaty?! In addition we will look into the structure of CO2 molecules, techniques to measure CO2, and carry out experiments with growing plants. The E&ES CO2 monitoring site will have collected three months of data when the course starts, and we will collect another three months of data during the course. We will compare the Wesleyan CO2 record with those from elsewhere and interpret variations in measured CO2 contents at different time scales (day/night; weekly, seasonal, long-term) in terms of local and regional fluxes of CO2. We will extract CO2 databases from the web and replot them with our data, calculate fluxes of absolute amounts from data series, and other computer exercises. Student groups will create scenarios of global warming for emission densities of CO2 in the world and write essays on scientific and political aspects.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: NSM E&ES Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
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