B7 The Water Cycle (page 89) Flashcards
Is Water on Planet Earth constantly recycled?
Yes.
Would humans survive without water?
No.
What do ‘The Water Cycle’ mean?
it means water is endlessly recycled.
(There has only ever been a fixed amount of water on the Earth).
What happens when Energy from the sun makes water evaporate from the land and sea?
it gets turned into water vapour.
What is Transpiration?
Water evaporates from Plants - this is known as transpiration (see page 40)
What happens when the warm water vapour is carried upwards (as warm air rises)?
When it gets higher up it cools and condenses to form clouds.
What happens when water falls from the clouds?
Water falls from the clouds as precipitation (usually rain, but sometimes snow or hail) onto land, where it provides fresh water for plants and animals)
What happens to the water that falls from the clouds as precipitation?
Some of this water is absorbed by the soil and is taken up by plant roots.
Why is it a good thing that water from precipitation is absorbed by the soil and taken up by plant roots?
This provides plants with fresh water for things like photosynthesis.
Some of the water taken up by plants becomes part of the plants’ tissues and is passed along to animals in food chains.
Like plants, animals need water for the chemical reactions that happen in their bodies, explain how animals return water to the soil and atmosphere?
Animals return water to the soil and atmosphere through excretion. (processes that get rid of the waste products of chemical reactions, e.g. sweating, urination and breathing out).
Where can Animals get fresh water from?
by drinking from streams and rivers.
What happens to water that doesn’t get absorbed by the soil?
it will runoff into streams and rivers.
What happens with water in streams and rivers?
The water then drains back into the sea, before it evaporates all over again.
(look at picture of the water cycle on page 89)
The most important to thing to remember that the watercycle is a cycle, what do this mean?
a continuous process with no beginning or end. Water that falls to the ground as rain (or any other kind of precipitation) will eventually end up back in the clouds again.
A) In the water cycle, how does water move from the land into the air? (1 mark)
B) How does the water cycle benefit plants and animals? (1 mark)
a) By evaporation/transpiration (1 mark)
b) By providing them with fresh water (1 mark)
