Physical geography

• The arctic tundra is below freezing for 8-9 months
• Permeability is low in the arctic tundra due to crystalline rock basin
• the arctic tundra in 8million km2
• the annual precipitation of the arctic tundra is 200mm/m2/year
• 1600GT of carbon is stored in the permafrost in the arctic tundra
• 5x more carbon is stored in the soil than in above ground biomass in the arctic tundra
• the NPP rate in the arctic tundra is 200g/m2/year
• oil and gas production started in the arctic tundra in 1968
• 17 million tones/year have been released as a result of human activity
• 2 billion barrels of oil have been transported using the trans Alaska pipeline
• management strategies in the arctic tundra are:

  • insulated road pads and houses
  • elevated pipelines
  • drilling laterally
  • using new technology to locate oil and gas
• th average temperature in the arctic tundra is -15 degrees
• there is 10/tonnes/ha in the arctic tundra
• the growing season is 3 months in the arctic tundra
• in the spring the river Yukon is flooding due to increases melt water from glaciers
• The catchment area of the Nile delta is 3million km2
• the Aswan dam was built in 1964
• th Aswan dam made coastal retreat go from 20m/year to 140m/year
• for the last 30 years the Mediterranean Sea has risen by 2.8mm/year
• the distribution of sediment is:

  • silt
  • clay
  • fine sand
• the two main sediment sources in the Nile delta are:

  • the Rosetta
  • the Damietta
• the Nile delta is on average 2m above sea level
• a 1m rise in seal level will result in a 20% loss of the coastline in the Nile delta
• an example of a spit is the Damietta spit
• an example of a lagoon in the Nile delta is lake Manzala which is over 40km long
• sabkhas are found behind lagoons in the Nile delta
• peak wind speeds in the Nile delta are 20cm/s in the winter
• the fluvial sediment supply at the Nile delta is 120million tonnes
• an example of a cresentric bar, swash aligned feature, is at Alexandria
• LSD direction at the Nile delta is:

  • west to east in summer
  • east to west in winter
• sand dunes are found in the Nile delta between Burullus and Damietta
• the max wave height in the Nile delta is 1.5m
• The amazon rainforest has faced droughts in 2005, 2010, 2015
• a 4 degree rise in the amazon would lead to the death of 85% of the forest
• the central amazonian conservation complex was set up in 2003 to protect 49,000km2 of biodiversity
• 50-80% of land has to be kept as forest under the Brazilian forest code
• an example of an afforestation project is:

  • Peru, 2016 - planted over 115 acres
  • parica project, 2019 - Rodonia, 20 million seedlings planted
• the avg annual precipitation is 2000-10000mm/m2/year
• the average NPP of the amazon is 2,500g/m2/year
• the average rate of deforestation is 17,500km2/year in the amazon rainforest