The seminar addressed various issues concerning the new frontiers in regards to atmosphere and climate changes. Among the issues that were discussed is how vegetation impacts the atmosphere. According to the speaker, vegetation affects the atmosphere through a number of ways including limiting the amount of sun’s radiation, controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, changing the color of reefs, and wind conditions within the earth’s surface among other factors. The speaker also addressed the issue of how changing the amount of vegetation cover can influence atmosphere and climate dynamics through a wide range of changes. The issue of vegetation cover in the world was addressed through three major regional segments; the tropics, the temperate regions, and the moorlands. The seminar covered how vegetation cover affects water security and energy conservation budgets across the world.
The tropics are mainly consistent of two types of vegetations: tropical rainforests and tropical grasslands. Tropical rainforests consists of deep-rooted trees that consequently attract a significant amount of cloud cover. On the other hand, grasslands are characterized by sparse trees and weak ground cover. Snow distribution is a major factor in areas that feature these two types of vegetation cover. The various types of vegetation can have differing levels of influence on energy budgets. Grasslands are only able to sustain a comparatively small number of atmospheric processes and they have little effect on climate dynamics. The speaker concluded that increasing forest cover would in turn have a better stabilizing factor on climatic changes. In addition, increasing forest cover will also reduce energy budgets around the world. The seminar also featured a series of experiments to determine the impact of different levels of vegetation on the climate. The speaker also clarified that the area of land under agriculture experiences the same environmental effects as areas that are covered by grasslands. Solar radiation is also a major factor in the debate on vegetation cover whereas its effects are more severe on grasslands than they are on areas with trees.
Most of the experiments that were presented throughout the seminar were aimed at proving that vegetation cover can have drastic effects. One experiment indicated that cloud cover reduces the amount of sun radiation significantly thereby curtailing the effects of harsh climatic conditions. Furthermore, leafy trees led to the creation of significantly thicker cloud covers when they were compared to other types of thin-leafed trees. The experiments also focused on the water levels that were on the earth’s surface and atmosphere in respect to the amounts of vegetation cover. In one experiment, high temperatures and thick vegetation covers were directly linked to high levels of humidity in the atmosphere. The speaker implied that changing grasslands into forest covers has the potential to contribute to a wide range of positive impacts on the environment. Temperatures in the tropics are often lower in areas that feature tree covers as opposed to grasslands.
Experiments were also conducted on moorlands, where it turned out that increasing vegetation absorbed more energy from the atmosphere. However, increasing vegetation cover also led to a slight change in the temperatures of high-latitude areas under moorlands. The speaker concluded by noting that adding more vegetation cover on various regions across does not necessarily lead to similar results. The speaker noted that adding vegetation cover in the tropics has the most significant benefits to the climate as opposed to increasing tree cover in the moorlands and other temperate areas.