Environmental studies climate change

Isotopes are elements whose atoms have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. Within chemistry it is, as a rule, possible to disregard the fact that the elements are not uniform but mixtures of isotopes. The reason for this is partly that the chemical properties are almost entirely determined by the proton number and partly that, for most of the elements, the mixture of isotopes shows very little variation. However, the isotopic composition is not completely constant, and the small variations are studied and used within geochemistry. Observation of the differences in isotopic composition for an element in different minerals makes it possible to draw conclusions about the conditions at the formation of the mineral. Geochemical isotope research also tries to gain information on long-term environmental and climate changes. 

The Table of Contents for this collection will facilitate this discussion. Notice that the papers are grouped into the categories of Atmospheric, Aquatic and Terrestrial Components, Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change, and Global Environmental Science Education. The reader may want to consider the various chemical species studied in each paper. Next, the reader may wish to group the papers by whether they address the source or the receptor, the transport or transformation processes for the chemical species. Finally, the reader needs to establish the time scales and the spatial resolution used. 

The inventory results should be presented in clear form, how much and what substances from the environment enter the system and how much get out. These results serve for subsequent life cycle impact assessment [48], The aim of the life cycle impact assessment is to measurably compare the environmental impacts of product systems and to compare their severity with new quantifiable variables identified as impact category. The impact categories are areas of specific environmental problems such as global warming, climate changes, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity and others. Already in the phase of definition of the LCA study scope, it is necessary to describe what impact category will be applied and which of their environmental mechanisms will serve as a basis for impact assessment [46],... 

Apart from of investigating the concentration of priority pollutants to assess the temporal and geographic trends as it has been done in the Ebro river basin until nowadays, the SCARCE project pretends to evaluate the consequences of the climate change in the water quality as well as predicting new environmental risks derived from water scarcity. This will be done by determining the presence of new priority (i.e. perfluorinated compounds) and emerging toxicants in Mediterranean river ecosystems in the Iberian Peninsula. In a subsequent step, the effects of chemical and environmental stressors on the biota will be assessed by combining field and experimental studies. The effects of multiple stressors will be addressed from a multi-biomarker perspective [27]. 

An important aspect of studying high-latitude environmental dynamics is assessment of the impact of potential anthropogenic climate warming. In this context Frederick (1994) formulated the key issues to be considered when integrating assessments of the impact of climate change on natural resources. Specific project objectives include... 

Important perspectives are connected with the paleo-environmental studies by the Paleoenvironmental Arctic Science (PARCS) community (MacDonald et al., 2001) which have the principal aim of answering the question To what extent do recent observations of climate change in the Arctic reflect natural climate cycles Relevant major topics include ... 

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