International A Level Biology / Environment and climate change

Evidence for climate change: CO2 and temperature records

Edexcel International A Level Biology (YBI11), chapter 16: Environment and climate change, specification point 5.16. Part of the full course.

Read the revision notes · International A Level Biology past papers

Long-term records show how atmospheric CO₂ and temperature have changed, from thermometer readings to air trapped in ancient ice. They provide evidence of change, but a correlation between CO₂ and temperature does not by itself prove cause.

More lessons in Environment and climate change

• Energy transfer between trophic levels
• Gross and net primary productivity
• The carbon cycle
• Using the carbon cycle to reduce atmospheric CO₂
• The greenhouse effect and anthropogenic climate change
• Evidence for climate change: pollen in peat bogs and dendrochronology
• The climate debate: correlation, causation and who concludes
• Extrapolating data: climate models and their limitations
• How climate change affects plants and animals
• Temperature, enzymes and Q10
• Core practical 12: temperature and the development of organisms
• Evolution: a change in allele frequency
• Allopatric and sympatric speciation