Julie+D

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

 **1.1** - The oil spill occurs near the tropical rainforest biome in the Gulf of Mexico. None of the organisms are able to adapt to the oil. Some biotic and abiotic components are affected, which may eventually have an effect on other organisms.
 * 1.2 ** - The thick layer of oil does not let as much sun through, which will have an effect on plants, where light is required for photosynthesis. Lots of organisms will be harmed from the spill, and their population will decrease. This may disrupt the natural flow and amount of symbiotic relationships, competition, predation, and niches.
 * 2.1 ** - The lack of sunlight will cause the number of aquatic plants to decrease, which will disrupt the food pyramid. The aquatic plants are the producers, and with their numbers decreased, the primary consumers will have less food. Because of the lack of food, the primary consumers may starve, causing the secondary consumers to have less food, which will then affect the tertiary consumers. This will not only affect the aquatic food chain, because some animals on land also feed off of marine organisms, such as birds eating fish.
 * 2.2 ** - The carbon dioxide from the explosions and controlled fires affect the natural carbon cycle, because it adds more to the atmosphere.



** 2.3 ** - In the Gulf of Mexico, there may be a keystone species. If their population decreases, other organisms and the ecosystem may be affected greatly. Chemicals from the oil spill may get into the systems of the animals and will bioaccumulate. If the chemicals bioaccumulate, species that are higher in the food pyramid will be affected by biomagnification.
 * 3.1 ** - Some fishes near the oil spill may not be affected as much because of natural selection. These fishes may mate and pass those characteristics on to their offspring.
 * 3.2 ** - Oil spills are caused by resource use/exploitation. This is a good example to show how human activities affect the environment. The oil is contaminating the habitat.


 * 3.3** - Invasive species may be introduced to the Gulf of Mexico from humans or boats that are there to try to help get rid of the oil spill.

"Gulf of Mexico Leak Reaches Land" __Huffington Post__ June 7, 2010 [] "Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion" __Wikipedia__ June 7, 2010 [] "Deepwater Horizon oil spill" __Wikipedia__ June 7, 2010 [] I don't really like using Wikispaces. Being on the computer is a big distraction for me, and I'm not sure if it's just the computer I'm using right now, but when I press the Enter key or try to paste something in, I sometimes lose a sentence. It keeps happening to me so it's been making me a bit mad. I would prefer doing a test instead of a project. //_
 * Wikispaces:**

__Describe how natural phenomena can affect climate__ //

How Natural Phenomena Can Affect Climate

**Volcanic Eruptions__**

Volcanic eruptions cause many things to inject into Earth’s stratosphere, like water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and ash. The sulfur dioxide converts into sulfuric acid (H2SO4), which then condenses and increases Earth’s albedo. That causes more of the Sun’s radiation to reflect back into space, which then cools the Earth’s troposphere.



//Year Without a Summer//

In 1816, there were severe abnormalities in the summer climate of Northern Europe, Northeastern United States, and Eastern Canada. Most believe that this was caused by low solar activity and the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which was the largest eruption in over 1,600 years. In the spring and summer of 1816, there was dry fog that blocked out sunlight in the Northeastern United States, and could not be dispersed by rain or wind. It was not fog, but a stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil. There was also frost in May, and snow in June. This caused loss of crops, which resulted in malnutrition and starvation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano http://sciencestage.com/d/3118472/volcanoes-and-climate.html