Carbon and Water - Water Cycle

Question 1

What are the main stores of Water?

Answer 1

• Hydrosphere (Liquid) – main form oceanic water (97%) and freshwater made from ice caps and glaciers (3%)
• Cryosphere (ice) – found at high latitude and altitude
• Lithosphere (groundwater) – collects underground from infiltration in aquifers
• Atmosphere (air) – water vapour

Question 2

What are the ways water can be transferred?

Answer 2

• Evaporation – water moving from hydrosphere to atmosphere
• Transpiration – water moves from vegetation to atmosphere
• Condensation – atmosphere to hydrosphere
• Evapotranspiration

Question 3

What is a Drainage Basin?

Answer 3

Or Catchment Area that supplies river with water

Question 4

What are the inputs and stores in a Drainage Basin?

Answer 4

Inputs:
Precipitation on land and sea
Stores:
Lakes and surface water, river channels, interception (rainforest vegetation can intercept up to 58% of precipitation), soil, groundwater

Question 5

What are the transfers in a Drainage Basin System?

Answer 5

Overland flow, throughflow (precipitation that isn’t intercepted by vegetation) stemflow (Precipitation that flows down trunks) infiltration (into soil), Percolation (deeper infiltration into bedrock), throughflow (in soil), groundwater flow (in deeper rock/bedrock)

Question 6

What are the outputs of a Drainage Basin System?

Answer 6

Transpiration from vegetation, evaporation from water surfaces, run off, evaporation from sea

Question 7

What are the physical features that effect a Flood Hydrograph?

Answer 7

steepness and relief, soil saturation, vegetation/interception, size of catchment or river basin, volume of precipitation.

Question 8

What are the human factors that effect a Flood Hydrograph?

Answer 8

deforestation, afforestation, agriculture (ploughing breaks topsoil increasing infiltration), urban areas and land use changes (concrete is less permeable so less infiltration).