Chapter 4 Water systems Flashcards
What is the hydrological cycle?
It is a system of water flows and storages
What drives the hydrological cycle?
The cycle is driven by heat from the sun which is responsible for the formation of clouds and weather patterns, without evaporation there would be no water cycle. Gravity is what pulls back down the water and continues the cycle
What is evapotranspiration?
It is the process where water evaporates from plants, this is how water vapor gets back into the air
What is sublimation?
The conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of matter, with no intermediate liquid stage. Used to describe the process of snow and ice changing into water vapor in the air without first melting into water
What is evaporation?
The process of changing water from liquid to gas. Only fresh water makes its way up to the clouds, as ocean water leaves behind salt, minerals, and metals when it evaporates
What is condensation?
The process of changing water from gas to liquid. As water vapor rises, it becomes cooler and changes into tiny liquid water droplets. These merge together to form clouds.
What is advection?
Transport of an atmospheric property by the wind. This horizontal transport or transfer of a quality such as heat and cold from one point to another. Advective transfers occur either in the oceans by currents of seawater or by large-scale movement in the atmosphere where humidity (atmospheric moisture) is another important property
What is precipitation?
When rain, snow, sleet or hail falls from the sky. Depending on the air temperature, water can take a liquid form (rain), or a solid form (snow, sleet or hail).
What is melting?
The process by which ice or snow changes into water
What is freezing?
The process by which water changes from liquid to solid. Oceans, groundwater
How does the surface current move?
Ocean water that is moved by the wind and affects the 400m of the ocean surface
How do deep ocean currents move?
Also referred to as thermohaline, deep ocean currents make up 90% of the ocean currents and move due to differences in density.
What affects the water density?
Salinity levels and temperature effect the density of water. A higher salinity level increases water density, and cold water is able to hold more salt
What is the ocean circulatory system?
It is the process of the global distribution of water (matter and energy) and it is what influences the climate
What are upwellings?
The process where cold water moves up to replace warm water
What are down downwellings?
The process where warm water moves down to replace cold water
What is eutrophication?
Eutrophication occurs due to excessive nutrients in a body of water that causes excessive growth of algae. Usually due to run-off from the land
Why are algae harmful?
Algae contains toxins, noxious chemicals, and pathogens
What affects water scarcity?
How much water there is and how that existing water is being used
What is water stress?
Water stress is when the demand exceeds the available supply over a period of time, or when the quality of the water restricts it’s use
Define economic water scarcity
Occurs due to the lack of financial resources e.g. the cost of treating water to make it safe to drink
Define physical water scarcity
Occurs when there is not enough water to meet the demand
Examples of contributors to water stress
Over-extraction of groundwater and surface water, pollution of surface and groundwater resources, and inefficient use of water
What do humans use freshwater for?
Domestic, agricultural, transportation, and marking boundaries between states
Definition of water sustainability
Sustainable use of a resource at a rate that does not impact future generations
Examples of what causes water scarcity
Growing populations, climate change, wasteful agricultural practices, over-pumped aquifers
Large-scale solutions to water scarcity
Build dams, rainwater harvesting, desalination, artificially recharge aquifers
Small-scale solutions to water scarcity
Efficient domestic use, greywater recycling, rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation
What is water degradation?
The contamination of water
Examples of what causes water degradation
Contamination of aquifers, industrial water pollution, and fertilizers from agriculture contaminating the water
Examples of solutions to water degradation
Usage of organic farming methods, being selective with the pesticides used, industries removing pollutants from wastewater and implementing treatment plants,
What are the different types of marine ecosystems?
Intertidal zones, mangroves, estuaries, lagoons, coral reefs, and deep ocean
What is phytoplankton?
They are single-celled producers that float on the surface and produce 99% of primary productivity in the ocean
What is zooplankton?
Single-celled animals that are primary consumers of phytoplankton
What is dredging?
It is a metal bag that is dragged along the ocean floor, captures anything in it’s path
What are gillnets?
A curtain of netting with large holes placed in the ocean usually traps unwanted animals such as turtles
What is trawling?
A net dragged through the ocean
What is blast fishing?
The use of explosives to kill all fish in the area to then later be collected. Kills all the marine life and destroys ecosystems
Examples of benefits of fish farming
Scraps are used to make fishmeal, fish having alternative nutrient outlets rather than eating other fish,
Examples of issues with fish farming
Lost of lower food chain fish, loss of habitat to create the fish farms, pollution of water, genetically modified fish which they escape can disrupt other ecosystems
