Climate Zones, Climate Types and Climate Change (VO)

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Course lecturer:

 Vanessa Berger , MSc
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Mag. rer. nat.

 Klaus Steinbauer
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Course numberB2.09090.10.051
Course codeClimateTTC
Curriculum2024
Semester of degree program Semester 1
Mode of delivery Presence- and Telecourse
Units per week2,0
ECTS credits2,5
Language of instruction English

Students are able to

  • understand the difference between weather and climate
  • describe climate zones and types based on characteristics
  • describe the components of the climate system and associated fluxes
  • name the most relevant drivers of climate change
  • name the most important climate change mitigations and climate change adaptations in relation to climate change and apply them in different fields of practice
  • take a position on various current discussions and classify diverging information

None

The course will cover the following content:

  • Difference between weather and climate
  • Overview of fluxes (including radiation, wind, evaporation, precipitation and chemical transformations) and the influences of oceans
  • Overview of the components of the climate system (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and cryosphere)
  • Distribution and characteristics of climate types
  • Distribution and characteristics of climate zones
  • Climate change and its driving forces
  • Overview of the most used climate scenarios
  • Impacts of climate change on nature and humans
  • Applied examples of mitigation strategies and adaptation strategies to climate change

IPCC: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte V., Zhai P., Pirani A., Connors S.L., Péan C., Berger S., Caud N., Chen Y., Goldfarb L., Gomis M.I., Huang M., Leitzell K., Lonnoy E., Matthews J.B.R., Maycock T.K., Waterfield T., Yelekçi O., Yu R., Zhou B. (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, 2021; doi:10.1017/9781009157896.
Reichstein M., Bahn M., Ciais P., Frank D., Mahecha M., Seneviratne S., Zscheischler J., Beer C., Buchmann N., Frank D., Papale D., Rammig A., Smith P., Thonicke K., Velde M., Vicca S., Walz A., Wattenbach M.: Climate extremes and the carbon cycle. Nature. Vol 500. p 287-95.; August 2013; doi:10.1038/nature12350.
Begon M., Townsend C., R.: Ecology: From individuals to ecosystems, 5th Edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2021
Malberg H.: Meteorologie und Klimatologie: Eine Einführung. 4. Aufl. B, New York: Springer, 2007; ISBN 978-3-540-37219-6

Lectures

Final examination character:
Written examination