2. Geography 155-08 Dr. Susan W.S. Millar swmillar@maxwell.syr.edu Class meets: M&W 10:35 am – 11:30 am The Natural Environment Flooding along Ohio River last week. Images from NASA EOS.

3. 1. What is the natural environment? The four spheres of Earth –Atmosphere –Hydrosphere –Lithosphere –Biosphere Structure of the course

4. Part 1 The Energy-Atmosphere System Part 2 The Water, Weather and Climate Systems Part 4 The Earth-Atmosphere Interface Part 3 Ecosystems and Biomes

5. Why Geography? Definition: Earth’s description Understanding spatial relationships

6. 2. Association of American Geographers: 5 Themes Location Region Human-earth relationships Place Movement

7. Location Absolute location –latitude and longitude Syracuse, NY: 43°N, 76°W Relative location –relative to some other place or feature Syracuse, NY: south of Lake Ontario Syracuse, NY: half way between NYC and Buffalo

8. Association of American Geographers: 5 Themes Location Region Human-earth relationships Place Movement

9. Region Areas delineated based on commonalities –Appalachia –Rust belt –America’s food basket

10. Folded mountain belt of Appalachians

11. Rust Belt From: Rubenstein, 1994

12. Sun Belt Based on a survey of geographers. From Rubenstein, 1994

14. Association of American Geographers: 5 Themes Location Region Human-earth relationships Place Movement

15. Human-Earth Relationships Hazard perception Resource exploitation Environmental modification

16. Hazard Perception Fort Worth Tornado, 1999

17. Resource Exploitation Bingham canyon copper mine, Utah

18. Environmental Modification City of Venice, Italy

19. Association of American Geographers: 5 Themes Location Region Human-earth relationships Place Movement

20. Place What makes a place unique. Mt. St. Helens, Washington

21. Association of American Geographers: 5 Themes Location Region Human-earth relationships Place Movement

22. Communication Movement Circulation

23. The Gulf Stream

24. Palm trees in Scotland!... At a latitude equivalent to Alaska...

25. 3. Physical Geography Uses the scientific method In the framework of systems theory

26. General theory, governing laws Hypothesis Real World Scientific method begins here Predictions Inductive reasoning Observations, measurements Theory formulation Experiment and testing Search for patterns and order Explanation Data collection Perception Real world understood General statement What data? Model building Refining of hypothesis What’s known, what do we want to know? Positive feedback Negative feedback Geosystems, p 7

27. Observation of the real world Lots of heavy rain makes rivers muddy. Hypothesis Greatest sediment loss with highest annual precipitation Data Collection Rainfall data Sediment loss (yield) from land

28. Testing Predictions Measure precipitation and sediment yield in as many places as possible Expected results:

29. Actual Results Precipitation (mm) Sediment Yield (t m -2 yr -1 )

30. Refine Hypothesis Observations of real world Are other factor(s) important? Vegetation!

33. Relationship between vegetation and sediment yield

34. Interaction of different factors

35. 4. Systems Theory A set of ordered, inter-related things and their attributes, linked by flows of energy and matter. System Feedbacks –Positive feedback: change leads to growth. –Negative feedback: change leads to reduction in growth.

36. Positive Feedback Growth continues in same direction Runaway system Compound interest Greenhouse warming and evaporation

37. Negative Feedback Limits growth System control -ve feedback 1 -ve feedback 2 Human sweating Greenhouse warming and increased cloud cover

38. Feedbacks lead to system stability Earth-system tends to remain in equilibrium (balance). But is it a steady-state equilibrium, dynamic equilibrium? Or metastable?

39. Steady-State Equilibrium Fluctuates around a mean value Figure in Geosystems, p10

40. Dynamic Equilibrium and Metastable Systems Trend of operation varies – dynamic Jumps to a new level of operation - metastable

41. Steady-stateRelaxationSteady -state Perturbation A Geomorphic System A metastable system

42. Global System

43. Summary Physical geographers study the natural environment. Use the scientific method to understand earth systems Focus on spatial relationships that help explain aspects of the system.