Chapter 2 - Unit 1 Flashcards
What is Evaporation?
Solar energy heats liquid water turning it into a gas
What is Evapotranspiration?
Water released through photosynthesis
What is Condensation
Water vapour cools and becomes water droplets
What is Sublimation
Process of turning ice into a gas
What is Precipitation
When clouds are too saturated, they release extra moisture (rain, snow, sleet, hail)
What is Collection?
Acts as water storage (ice, snow, lakes, oceans, springs, groundwater) for infiltration and run-off.
What is the role of water within the cycles?
- Water is a product of cellular respiration
- The routes that water takes through the biosphere are called biochemical cycles
- More than 97% of water in the biosphere is in liquid form
- Transfers heat and dissolved materials
Why is water a polar molecule?
Because the oxygen has a slightly more negative charge whereas the hydrogen has a slightly more positive charge
What does the polarity of water allow it to do?
- Allows it to form hydrogen bonds
- Dissolve many substances
List the four Properties of Water
- Cohesion
- Adhesion
- Density
- Heat Capacity
What is Cohesion?
The attraction of one water molecule to another (ex. Surface Tension)
What is Adhesion?
The attraction of water molecules to other substances (Ex. Capillary action transpiration)
What is Density?
Water is less dense in solid form than liquid (Ex. Ice floats, and this important for pond life)
What is Heat Capacity?
Water heats up slowly and holds its temperature (Ex. Moderates temperatures of organisms and land)
What is a Biochemical Cycle?
- Ways that elements or compounds move between living and nonliving components and locations
- The hydrologic cycle is a link to all of them
What is Rapid Cycling?
Substances can cycle between nutrient reservoirs relatively quickly (Ex. Producer, to consumer, to decomposer)
What is Slow Cycling?
Substances can accumulate and be stored for long periods of time and be unavailable to organisms (Ex. Creating fossil fuels, forests, mountains)
What is a Nutrient Reservoir
Organisms, soil, air, and water
What are the two different types of cycles carbon can enter?
- Fast and Short Term - Happening all the time
- Slow and Long Term - Happening over millions of years
What happens during the fact carbon cycle?
Combustion (ie, forest fires, burning fossil fuels, respiration, photosynthesis)
What happens during the slow carbon cycle?
Carbon is converted into fossil fuels or carbonates in rocks/ocean floors, weathering of rocks
What are carbon reservoirs?
Places where carbon is store:
- Atmosphere
- Soil
- Ocean’s surface
- Deep ocean
- Limestone rock
- Fossil Fuels
- Trees
- Organisms
What does being carbon neutral mean?
Removing as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as we put in
What are 5 examples of greenhouse gases?
- Nitrous oxide
- water vapour
- carbon dioxide
- methane
- CFC’s
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
- Some solar radiation is reflected by the atmosphere but some is absorbed by the earth
- Infrared radiation released from the earth escapes in to space
- Greenhouse gases trap some infrared radiation in the troposphere
- Excess greenhouse gases trap excess heat causing heat to radiate and warm the earth
How much of the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen?
78% of the atmosphere is made of nitrogen
What is Nitrogen Fixation?
Bacteria and lightening ‘fix’ atmosphere nitrogen (N2) into ammonium (NH4)
Ammonification
Soil bacteria convert dead organisms and animal waste ammonium ions (plants/animals —> soil bacteria —> ammonium)
Nitrification
Soil bacteria convert ammonium into nitrite (NO2-) and then nitrate (NO3-) ions for use by plants as a nitrogen source (ammonium
—> soil bacteria —> nitrites + nitrates)
Denitrification
Soil bacteria convert nitrite (NO2-) or nitrate (NO3-) back to nitrogen gas (N2) which goes into the atmosphere (nitrites + nitrates —> soil bacteria —> atmosphere)
