[Applause]
The most visual
manifestation of life on earth happens every year when springtime
comes and fresh green leaves and grasses appear all around us.
The biosphere, our living world is fueled by
the seasonal pulse of energy that the change in season brings.
In this visualization, we can see the seasonal changes
to plants on land and in the oceans. Using data
like these, we can estimate agricultural yield worldwide,
predict famines, fires and algae blooms
or help with land management. This global view of our biosphere
is also crucial for studying the flow of carbon to the Earth system
and predicting the rate and effect of climate change on our home planet.
In fact, the vegetation on land and in the
oceans are crucial component of the global carbon cycle
and climate change science. Plants are the real lungs
of the Earth, absorbing the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and producing the oxygen that we breathe. Here we see what's call net primary
productivity; maps are aware and how much carbon
is taken up or released by plants on a monthly basis.
The colors are on these maps indicate how fast carbon
was taken in for every square meter of land and you could see how
where majority of the land masses lie. Maps such as these,
allow a scientist to routinely monitor plant's role in the global carbon
cycle and monitor how they're affecting and affected by
or changing climate. Carbon is
emitted into the atmosphere from natural sources such as forest
clearing, decomposition, or volcanic activity.
90% of the non-natural emissions result
from power production, cement production and transportation.
Over time 50%
of that carbon that's emitted stays in the atmosphere while
25% gets taken up by trees and plants and the remaining
25% is taken up by our oceans.
And in fact, we can measure the contribution in vegetation growth and
human's emissions on the carbon that is stored in the atmosphere using satellite data.
So this visualization is a time series of the global
distribution and variation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as observed by NASA
satellite since the year 2000. For comparison we've overlaid
a graph of the seasonal and inter-annual annual changed increase of carbon
dioxide that was measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
So these data sets show us that the amount of carbon dioxide stored in
the atmosphere is steadily increasing as we continuously pump
carbon into the atmosphere and decrease our forested and vegetated
areas. And even though we still see that
semi annual depth in concentrations with the growth of vegetation in the springtime,
the increasing trend of carbon dioxide concentrations
is leading to the warming and changing of our planet.
The seasonal
pulse of vegetation growth is crucial for the well-being and balance of life on Earth.
This visualization of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
shows how every springtime when forests, grasslands and agricultural
lands Green up they suck up the carbon dioxide contained in the atmosphere
through photosynthesis, but in the winter months that photosynthetic
uptake is not there and the large amounts of carbon dioxide stay in
the atmosphere and in fact data from satellite sensors have
shown us that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season,
the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity
than anywhere else on Earth. But with
changes in the distribution and type of land cover on earth,
the natural cycle of growth and carbon dioxide uptake is being
disturbed and more and more carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere.
Forest fires are one of the leading causes of vegetation change
and land use change emissions globally, but the cause of fires
can be both natural or human induced. In Africa
forest fires are used to clear land for agricultural activity
and the amount and timing of fires is clearly linked to the seasonal changes
from healthy green vegetation to dry grasses
leading to these sweeping waves of fire that move from south to north
and north to south each season. As these areas are getting
hotter and drier with climate change, the intensity and amount of fire
increases leading to even more clearing.
But our satellite sensors don't just show us the health and changes
in vegetation on large scales. We can also monitor the human impact
on our planet on the scale of the city or our neighborhood.
So this image series shows of the massive growth spurt of
Las Vegas since 1972. Those large red areas are
actually green spaces such as city parks or golf
courses but now take a look at Lake Mead
we can see how with the influx of people into the area, the water
table is steadily decreasing.
These images from Landsat really
show us how we humans have changed our planet.
Here we see the impact of mountaintop removal in West Virginia
from 1984 to the present.
In Saudi Arabia
we're able to see how irrigation technology has led to agriculture
expansion in deserts but also to water table depletion
n nearby reservoirs.
All of these examples are
showing how we humans are changing the look of the planet and consequently
significantly affecting its vital signs. Our last example
shows a recent map of a forest cover loss that is highlighted the extensive changes
happening since just the year 2000. These images show
forest clearing from wildfires in Colorado from 2000
to 2012 fueled by record temperatures and dry conditions.
In general, wildfires in the Western United States
are increasing in frequency and duration due to higher temperatures
and longer growing seasons and this has resulted in
twice as many acres burnt each year compared to just 40 years ago.
These seasons are like the heartbeat of the planet,
fueling the growth of vegetation worldwide
and just as the seasons can affect the health of forested areas,
they're also affecting the health of our ice caps and glaciers
and on that note I would like to thank you for listening and introduce the next speaker,
Dr. Thorsten Markus. [Applause]
[Applause]