Marine Pollution:

1. Which is toxic to marine life, copper as an atom or as an ion ( link )?
What four toxic responses do plankton have to metals in seawater?
2. How is it that plastics are harmful to marine creatures ( link )?
How many plastic bottles are produced annually by the U.S.?
3. What are the toxic effects of mercury ( link )? of dioxins? of PCB?

1. What percentage of the U.S.'s fresh water is contained in the Great Lakes ?
2. What is a POP ?  Give 3 examples of POP's. What are the adverse impacts to animals that accumulate POP's?
3. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) what is an "invasive species"?
4. When did Zebra Mussels enter the Great Lakes?  What's the problem with them being there?
5. What precentage of invasive species is believed to have come from ship's balast water? 
   What method are government agencies using to try to stop the Asian Carp from invading the Great Lakes?

1. We are interested in the WEATHER (the day to day variation in temperature, air circulation, and precipitation), especially those processes that cause the wind to blow. The wind doesn't always blow in the way our simple, global scale atmospheric circulation model (the wind "belts" model) predicts.
2. What time of the year do most strong extra-tropical (ET) storms occur in the northern hemisphere?
3. What is the pattern of motion of most "ET" storms both in terms of wind associated with these frontal storm systems and the pattern of motion of "ET" storms over the Earth's surface?
4. What does "latent heat" have to do with the formation of tropical storms?
5. Where do hurricanes generally form and what is their pattern of motion over the Earth's surface?
6. What usually happens in the life history of most hurricanes that results in the demise of the storm?
7. Compare and contrast "ET" and Tropical storms in terms of : where they originate; their internal structure; their relative scale; relative wind speed.

1. What is the important distinction between " Greenhouse Effect " and "enhanced greenhouse effect" or anthropogenic (human influenced) global warming?
2. To a large extent the composition of our atmosphere controls our climate. In the past (prior to the industrial revolution in the 19th century) man's activities had little effect on atmospheric composition. Since the industrial revolution man may be significantly influencing the atmosphere. This is a function of the generation of " Greenhouse gases ". What are the important Greenhouse gases?
3. What effects do Greenhouse gasses have on different heat transfer processes ? How does the Greenhouse effect modify incoming/outgoing radiation in the earth System? What are the temperature effects of these processes (the natural Greenhouse effect)?
4. What can change the Earth's solar energy balance (that is: the amount of incoming solar radiation absorbed versus the outgoing infrared radiation)?
5. Describe the concept of a " feedback " both positive and negitive.
6. What is a " biogeochemical cycle "? What is the impact on anthropogenic global warming of carbon found in various places within the " carbon cycle "; specifically, why are we concerned about carbon in CO 2 gas in the Atmosphere? What part does CO 2 in the ocean (especially the intermediate and deep ocean) play in the carbon cycle ? What if there was a significant change in the rate of exchange of CO 2 between the atmosphere and ocean, that is if CO 2
7. Let's have a look at some " solutions " to the specter of global warming. What do you think you should/can do about this issue???
   

1. What is " El Nino "?
2. How are El Nino conditions related to coastal upwelling off the coast of Peru? What is the influence of normal upwelling conditions on sea life in coastal waters off of Peru? Anywhere in the world's oceans? How about the influence of downwelling on sea life?
3. What effect do El Nino conditions have on living things in the east equitorial Pacific?
4. Why should anyone besides fishermen in Peru be interested in predicting El Nino ?
5. What do we now know about the prediction of El Nino?
6. What is La Nina ? What kind of weather might we expect in the mid-west this winter if this is a La Nina year? How accurate is this prediction?
7. Take a look at how information on El Nino-La Nina-Southern Occilation is used for regioanl weather forcasting (check out page 2 of this document).