Chapter 15 Flashcards
Hydrologic Cycle
- Water Cycle
- Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water from the environment to living organisms and then back to the environment
Surface Runoff
- The precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation
- including transportation from plants
Watershed/drainage basin
-The region from which surface water drains into a river, lake, wetland, or other body of water
Groundwater
- Water that sinks into the soil and is stored in slowly flowing and slowly renewed underground reservoirs called aquifers
- aquifers are underground water in the zone of saturation, below the water table
Zone of Aeration
-Zone in the soil that is not saturated with water and that lies above the water table
Zone of Saturation
-Area where all available pores in soil and rock in the earth’s crust are filled by water
Water Table
-Uper surface of the zone of saturation, in which all available pores in the soil and rock in the earth’s crust are filled with water
Aquifers
-Porous, water-saturated layers of sand, gravel, or bedrock that can yield an economically significant amount of water
Natural Recharge
-Natural replenishment of an aquifer by precipitation, which percolates downward through soil and rock
Desiccation
-Drying of exposed soil because of activities such as deforestation and overgrazing by livestock
Water Stress
-Low per capita availability of water caused by increasing numbers of people relying on limited runoff
Saltwater Intrusion
-Movement of salt water into freshwater aquifers in coastal and inland areas as groundwater is withdrawn faster than it is recharged by precipitation
Desalination
-Purification of salt or brackish (slightly salty) water by removal of dissolved salts
Distillation
-Heating salt water until it evaporates, leaving behind salts in solid form, and it condenses as fresh water
Reverse Osmosis
-Pumping salt water at high pressure through a thin membrane with pores that allow water molecules, but not most dissolved salts, to pass through
Cloud Seeding
- A form of weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds
- Dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei
-I couldn’t find in textbook
Xeriscaping
- Replacing green lawns with vegetation adapted to a dry climate because of water-short areas
- Win-Win approach
- Reduces water use by 30-85% and sharply reduces the need for labor, fertilizer, and fuel
- Reduces polluted runoff, air pollution, and yard wastes
Floodplain
- Flat valley floor next to a stream channel
- For legal purposes, the term often applies to any low area that has the potential for flooding, including certain coastal areas
