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Understanding Climate Change: Insights from Interdisciplinary Research on a Habitable Earth

This research theme explores climate change as a critical challenge facing humanity and its ecological ramifications. Focusing on the interplay between the Earth's physical and biological systems, the team aims to provide scientific bases for understanding global changes. The study emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and has demonstrated significant research excellence with numerous high-impact publications. Team members bring diverse expertise, contributing to our understanding of climate change, its causes, effects, and the Earth's habitability in a wider astronomical context.

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Understanding Climate Change: Insights from Interdisciplinary Research on a Habitable Earth

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  1. Emerging Strategic Research Theme The Habitable Earth Sun Kwok Faculty of Science Key themes Causes of climate change Ecological effects of climate change Habitable planet in a wider context

  2. Why this theme? • It is perhaps the major challenge scientists face in the 21st century and therefore of tremendous practical importance • It is scientifically interesting • Requires interdisciplinary approaches • Demonstrated record of research excellence

  3. Members • Ecological effects of climate change • David Dudgeon • Clement Dumont • Melissa Hart • Nancy Karraker • Leszek Karczmarski • Kenneth Leung • Vengatesen Rajan • David Thomson • Gray A. Williams • Rudolf Wu • Y.Q. Zong • Causes of climate change • Jonathan Aitchison • Jason Ali • Nathalie Goodkin • Z.H. Liu • G.C. Zhao • Habitable planet in a wider context • Sun Kwok • Man Hoi Lee • Yiliang Li • Kono Lemke • Steve Pointing

  4. Objectives • To provide a sound and rigorous scientific basis for global change • To understand the changing interactions between the physical and biological components of the Earth system • To understand the ecological implications of climate change

  5. Track record of the team (last 5 years) High impact publications • Science: 5 • Nature: 4 • Nature series: 3 • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 3 median age of the team is: 43

  6. Earth as an integrated system • Atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere • Interacting physical, chemical and biological processes • Human impacts (e.g., on habitat destruction, biodiversity loss,atmospheric and ocean composition)

  7. Earth as a System Atmosphere Biosphere Solid Earth Oceans

  8. Earth today One of the greatest impact of NASA’s lunar program is the public appreciation of how fragile the Earth is

  9. Climate Change: Past and Present • Global climate evolution • Plate tectonics-climate interaction • Past atmospheric CO2 • Past Asian monsoon variability • HK regional climate change • Asian monsoon-El Nino interaction 34 M yr ago

  10. Influences of assembly and breakup of supercontinents on hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere • The assembly of a supercontinent may cause: • Decrease in total land areas • Low-rate oceanic production • Global sea levelsubsidence • Decrease of CO2 in atmosphere • Colder and dry weather- ‘Icehouse’ • Mass Extinction – P/T Boundary Event • The breakup of a supercontinent may cause: • High-rate oceanic production • Global sea levelrise • Increase of CO2 in atmosphere – continental/oceanic rifting • Warmer and wet weather- ‘greenhouse’ • Explosion of life – Cambrian explosion

  11. Life and the Earth Environment • When did the Earth become habitable, and why did life boom in the Cambrian period? • How and when the Asian monsoon was generated? • How has vegetation responded to climate change? • Environmental changes in Hong Kong.

  12. Impact of CO2 emissions • Changes in atmospheric temperature leads to ocean circulation, ocean/atmosphere interactions, evaporation/precipitation patterns • Can the oceans sustain their role as CO2 sinks?

  13. Ecosystems and population processes Impact of environmental change on wildlife demography, population structure, population persistence, invasive species and other multi-species interactions (David Dudgeon, Gray Williams, David Thomson, Kenny Leung, Leszek Karczmarski, Clement Dumont,Nancy Karraker)

  14. Effects on organisms Individual effects of environmental stress: thermal, chemical, osmotic, hypoxic, acidification (Rudolf Wu, Kenneth Leung, Rajan Vengatesan, Gray Williams, David Dudgeon)

  15. Urbanization The urban heat island: analyses of spatial variability and exposure (Melissa Hart) Building energy consumption under a future warming climate (Melissa Hart)

  16. Habitable planet in a wider context • Life in extreme environments: understanding the environmental limits for life on Earth and how geochemical factors determine the limits of life • Origin of life • Earth analogs: we cannot do experiments on Earth. We need to learn from other examples in the Solar System.

  17. Habitable Earth in the Wider Context • Extreme environments on Earth as tractable analogs to inform the search for life on other planets. (Pointing, Li) Polar desert, Earth Polar desert, Mars

  18. Habitable Earth in the Wider Context • Synthesis, stability and concentration of biomolecules in extreme environments on early Earth (Lemke, Li) • The role of fluids in early life processes (Lemke, Li)

  19. Habitable Earth in the Wider Context • How do microbes interact with geo-materials? • Bio-mineralization (Li) Ni-Cr-Fe-C alloy identified from 1600 million years dolomite (Li unpublished data).

  20. Habitable Earth in the Wider Context • How does evolution of the Solar System affect Earth’s Habitablity? (Lee) • Habitable worlds elsewhere in the Solar System and the Universe (Lee) • The delivery of pre-Solar System organics and • their effects of the origin of life on Earth (Sun Kwok)

  21. Extreme Environments Deep Ocean Atacama Desert, Chile Permafrost Area Salty Lake Grand Prismatic Spring (Yellowstone) Acid Mine Drainage

  22. Summary • There has been significant climate change over the history of the Earth due to internal and external perturbations • The Earth is an integrated system • Climate change is a complex subject requiring input from geology, chemistry, physics, biology, and astronomy

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