What do the arrows represent in a diagram of the greenhouse effect?

Answer 1

You'll have to examine the diagram carefully to work out which arrows are which. Here are some of them.

• Solar radiation reaches the earth from the sun.
• A little of this is reflected by clouds back into space.
• A little is absorbed by clouds and the atmosphere.
• Most of it reaches the surface of the earth, which gets warm.
• A little of the radiation reaching the earth's surface is reflected back to space from white and shiny snow and ice. This is the albedo effect.
• The warm earth now emits heat upwards, in the form of infrared radiation.
• A little of this gets right up and escapes into space, lost forever.
• Most of it is absorbed by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane hold this heat and the molecules become warm.
• This heat in the greenhouse gases moves in all directions, some of it back down to earth where it further warms the surface.

Answer 2

The arrows show how the factors in the ecosystem are related to each other and how they influence their surroundings.

Answer 3

Where each insect/animal or plant gets its energy from
eg.
rabbit---->hawk
the hawk gets energy from the rabbit