When did the Quaternary period begin, and what has happened to its climate since?

It began roughly 2.6 million years ago, and the climate has swung repeatedly between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacials, the present one included.

What does the width of tree rings tell a scientist about past climate?

A tree adds one ring a year and grows a wider ring in a warm, wet year, so ring widths in living and preserved timber date past conditions year by year.

How does pollen analysis show what the climate used to be like?

Pollen grains preserved in peat and lake sediment can be identified by species, and the plants growing at that depth show whether conditions were warm or cold.

Which historical records are used as evidence of past weather and climate?

Diaries, paintings, ships' logs and records of harvests and grape ripening describe the conditions of their day, and thermometer readings extend that record into the instrumental era.

What present-day physical changes are taken as evidence that the world is warming?

Glaciers are retreating and leaving fresh moraine, Arctic sea ice is shrinking in extent and thickness, and mean sea level is rising as oceans warm and expand.

AQA GCSE Geography 8035

Climate Change

Topic overview The evidence, causes and effects of climate change Managing climate change: mitigation and adaptation

Coastal Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview Waves and coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition Coastal landforms of erosion and deposition Identifying landforms on a stretch of UK coastline Coastal management: hard and soft engineering, and a UK scheme Managing the Holderness coast at Mappleton

Cold EnvironmentsLiving world option

Topic overview Cold environment characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Cold environment biodiversity Opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environment Protecting wilderness: balancing development and conservation

Ecosystems

Topic overview Ecosystems at every scale: interrelationships, balance and global distribution

EnergyResource option

Topic overview Energy surplus and deficit, and why demand is rising The impacts of energy insecurity Strategies to increase energy supply Towards a sustainable energy supply

FoodResource option

Topic overview Food security and insecurity: patterns, causes and impacts Strategies to increase food supply Towards a sustainable food supply

Geographical Applications: Fieldwork Enquiry

Topic overview Choosing an enquiry question, its theory and its sources Risk assessment in fieldwork Primary and secondary data, and sampling methods Justifying your data collection methods Choosing and using presentation methods Describing, analysing and explaining fieldwork results Anomalies in fieldwork data Drawing conclusions from an enquiry Evaluating an enquiry: problems, limitations and missing data How reliable were your conclusions?

Geographical Skills

Topic overview Atlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patterns Reading thematic maps for physical and human associations OS maps: scale, grid references, distance and direction OS maps: gradient, contours and landscape features OS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferences OS maps: transects, landscape description and human activity Comparing maps, sketch maps and photographs Describing landscapes from photographs, and annotating them Choosing and constructing the right graph or chart Completing choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line and flow maps Reading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line maps Number, scale, proportion and ratio, and designing data sheets Drawing conclusions from numerical data Averages, spread, percentages and correlation Spotting weaknesses in how data is presented Using maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidence Using imagery, written, visual and graphical sources Using numerical and statistical information as evidence Framing an enquiry and writing about it Building an argument and reaching a conclusion Issue evaluation: stakeholders, options and a justified decision

Glacial Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview The last ice age in the UK, and glacial processes Glacial landforms of erosion, transport and deposition Identifying landforms in a glaciated UK upland Economic activity, conflict and tourism in glaciated uplands Tourism in the Lake District

Hot DesertsLiving world option

Topic overview Hot desert characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Hot desert biodiversity Opportunities and challenges of developing a hot desert Desertification: causes and how the risk is reduced

Natural Hazards

Topic overview What a natural hazard is, and what affects hazard risk

Resource Management

Topic overview Why food, water and energy matter, and how unequally they are shared Resources in the UK, and the changing demand for food The UK's changing demand for water and energy

River Landscapes in the UKUK landscape option

Topic overview The long and cross profiles of a river, and fluvial processes River landforms from source to mouth Identifying landforms in a UK river valley Flood risk, hydrographs and flood management strategies A UK flood management scheme and its effects

Tectonic Hazards

Topic overview Plate tectonics, plate margins and where earthquakes and volcanoes occur The effects of and responses to a tectonic hazard Contrasting earthquakes: Chile 2010 and Nepal 2015 Living with tectonic risk: monitoring, prediction, protection and planning

The Changing Economic World

Topic overview Classifying development, and how it is measured Why measures fall short, the Demographic Transition Model, and causes of uneven development The consequences of uneven development Closing the development gap, and tourism as a strategy A rapidly developing country: change, industry, aid and impacts Nigeria: a newly emerging economy Economic futures in the UK UK economic change: named examples

Tropical Rainforests

Topic overview Rainforest characteristics, interdependence and adaptations Rainforest biodiversity Deforestation: rates, causes and impacts Deforestation in the Amazon The value of rainforests and how they are managed sustainably

UK Physical Landscapes

Topic overview The UK's upland areas, lowland areas and river systems

Urban Issues and Challenges

Topic overview Global urbanisation: patterns, trends and what drives them The rise of megacities A major city in a poorer or emerging country, and planning for the urban poor Rio de Janeiro: growth, opportunities and challenges The UK's urban population and a major UK city Bristol: urban change in a major UK city An urban regeneration project Sustainable urban living and urban transport

WaterResource option

Topic overview Water surplus and deficit, and why demand is rising The impacts of water insecurity Strategies to increase water supply Towards a sustainable water supply

Weather Hazards

Topic overview Global atmospheric circulation: pressure belts and surface winds Where tropical storms form, and why The structure of a tropical storm, and the effect of climate change The effects of and responses to tropical storms Reducing the effects of tropical storms Weather hazards in the UK An extreme weather event in the UK, and evidence of more extreme weather

Climate Change

The evidence, causes and effects of climate change

3 things to know
Paper 1

Overview

The Quaternary swings, ice cores, tree rings, pollen and historical records as evidence, orbital changes, eruptions, sunspots and human causes, and the effects on food, water, coasts and wildlife.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

How do tree rings and pollen analysis each give evidence of what the climate used to be like?

Key term

What are the three orbital changes that alter how much solar energy the Earth receives?

Key term

How do ice cores drilled from an ice sheet reveal past temperatures?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
When did the Quaternary period begin, and what has happened to its climate since?
Model answer
It began roughly 2.6 million years ago, and the climate has swung repeatedly between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacials, the present one included.
2
How do ice cores drilled from an ice sheet reveal past temperatures?
Model answer
Each annual layer traps bubbles of the air of its time, so the greenhouse gas content and the oxygen isotopes in the ice give a temperature record going back hundreds of thousands of years.
3
What does the width of tree rings tell a scientist about past climate?
Model answer
A tree adds one ring a year and grows a wider ring in a warm, wet year, so ring widths in living and preserved timber date past conditions year by year.
4
How does pollen analysis show what the climate used to be like?
Model answer
Pollen grains preserved in peat and lake sediment can be identified by species, and the plants growing at that depth show whether conditions were warm or cold.
5
Which historical records are used as evidence of past weather and climate?
Model answer
Diaries, paintings, ships' logs and records of harvests and grape ripening describe the conditions of their day, and thermometer readings extend that record into the instrumental era.
6
What present-day physical changes are taken as evidence that the world is warming?
Model answer
Glaciers are retreating and leaving fresh moraine, Arctic sea ice is shrinking in extent and thickness, and mean sea level is rising as oceans warm and expand.

See the rest and revise

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book

2Open book

3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Climate Change

Coastal Landscapes in the UK

Cold Environments

Ecosystems

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

500 m, because 50 000 cm is half a .

kilometremetremile

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ASunlight is free and will not run out.

BPanels can be fitted to a single home or clinic.

CPower reaches places no grid serves.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Magnitude means how large or powerful an event is.

TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Climate Change, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Start revising, £5 a month See how the method works

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.