Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: neilep on 05/11/2011 10:29:23
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Dearest Peeps Who Breathe,
As a sheepy I of course luff to breathe air. Breathing air is my all time favourite inhalation and exhalation hobby. I luff to breathe air , ewe luff to breathe air we all luff to breathe air.
Air as ewe know air was invented by Bach whilst out wearing his G String (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA76qbP9wsE)and playing his Harmonica in 1717. Since then, air has become the most popular of breathable gases....which is nice ! He found a niche in the market and has never looked Bach *le groan* !
So, because summer is like..... well seasonal.... and full of growth in plants and stuff....does this mean that there is more air in summer than there is in winter ?
Whajafink ?
hugs and shmishes
mwah mwah mwah
Neil
Air today, oxygen tomorrow
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According to this source (http://bluemoon.ucsd.edu/publications/ralph/3_Seasonal.pdf), yes ...
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http://bluemoon.ucsd.edu/publications/ralph/3_Seasonal.pdf
but the variation in oxygen from that graph is only about +/- 20 parts per million about the average.
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The downward trend looks slightly worrying...
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The downward trend looks slightly worrying...
That is quite a trend over a 4 year period, two decades ago.
Another way to look at the question.
The atmospheric density should increase in the colder weather, and decrease in the warmer weather. And, thus one would expect the opposite trend.
I.E. If you are planning on doing mountain climbing, you might be best off to do it in the dead of winter when the air will be most dense.
However, the oceans will tend to absorb more gases when cold, and release more gases when warmed. And, it may be preferential to certain gases, so it could throw around percentages between constituent gases.
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The downward trend looks slightly worrying...
That is quite a trend over a 4 year period, two decades ago.
Another way to look at the question.
The atmospheric density should increase in the colder weather, and decrease in the warmer weather. And, thus one would expect the opposite trend.
I.E. If you are planning on doing mountain climbing, you might be best off to do it in the dead of winter when the air will be most dense.
However, the oceans will tend to absorb more gases when cold, and release more gases when warmed. And, it may be preferential to certain gases, so it could throw around percentages between constituent gases.
The Keeling Nature paper linked above indicates that roughly half of the seasonal oxygen variation plus the whole of the long-term downward trend exactly mirrors the carbon dioxide variation observed at the same Northern stations.
The half that is unaccounted for in the seasonal variation they attribute to ocean exchange and oceanic photosynthesis.
The Cape Grim graph is particularly interesting (Southern Hemisphere, close to home!) Here there is almost no seasonal carbon dioxide variation, but much the same overall upward trend. It also shows that the non-CO2-related trend in oxygen is truly a seasonal rather than a global effect. The April minimum August maximum of the Northern stations is replaced by a October minimum February maximum at Cape Grim.
Important points:
(1) The oxygen graphs show variations in an oxygen:nitrogen ratio, so they are unaffected by changes in total atmospheric pressure or temperature.
(2) Oceanic photosynthesis will show a delayed rise relative to land-based photosynthesis, because it uses dissolved carbon dioxide and bicarbonate ion, and releases dissolved oxygen. The release of dissolved gases to the atmosphere or the uptake of atmospheric gases by the ocean will not be immediate, and the sea surface temperature may also affect these processes.
(3) The "per meg" scale used for the oxygen graphs means discrepancy of sampled air from standard atmospheric samples, measured as number of oxygen molecules per million oxygen molecules in the standard. The "ppmv" scale used for the carbon dioxide graphs is measured as number of carbon dioxide molecules per million molecules in the atmosphere as a whole. Because oxygen gas is roughly 1/5 of the atmosphere, "5 per meg" of oxygen is roughly equivalent to "1 ppmv" of carbon dioxide.
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winter air is dryer so maybe theres more space for the air to ocupy without the water.....until it snows & then bcause no 2 snowflakes are exact, the space gets cluttered?
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Gas laws show the relationship between temperature and volume. Since temperature affects the volume, the level of oxygen is dependent on the weather conditions.