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A Level Summer - Geography > Earth's Life Support Systems (ELSS) > Flashcards

Earth's Life Support Systems (ELSS) Flashcards

1
Q

Why is water key to understanding the evolution of life on earth?

A

As it provides a medium for organic molecules to mix and form more complex structures.

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2
Q

What is the ubiquity of water on Earth due to?

A

The distance of Earth from the sun. We are in the ‘Goldilocks’ zone where the temperature is just right for water to exist in liquid form.

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3
Q

What helps to create benign thermal conditions?

A

Water

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4
Q

How do oceans moderate the Earth’s heat?

A

by absorbing and releasing heat slowly.

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5
Q

How do clouds moderate the Earth’s heat?

A

They reflect a fifth of incoming radiation, lowering surface temperatures.

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6
Q

How does water vapour moderate the Earth’s heat?

A

Water vapour absorbs long wave radiation from the Earth, helping to maintain an average global temperature almost 15 degrees higher than it would be otherwise.

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7
Q

Water makes up how much of all living organisms?

A

65-95%

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8
Q

What is water crucial to in living organisms?

A

metabolic functions, growth, and reproduction

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9
Q

What do plants need water for?

A

photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, rigidity, and to transport nutrients from the soil

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10
Q

What is water needed for in animals and people?

A

Water is the medium for all chemical reactions in the body, including circulation of oxygen and nutrients

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11
Q

Name some reasons why water is an essential resource for economic activity:

A

generates electricity, irrigate crops, drinking water, used in a huge range of industries, recreational facilities

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12
Q

What are the 5 carbon stores?

A

carbonate rocks, sea floor sediments, ocean water, atmosphere and biosphere

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13
Q

How is carbon used as an economic resource?

A

Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas power the global economy. Oil is used in the manufacture of products ranging from plastics to paints.

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14
Q

System:

A

Groups of objects and the relationship that binds them together

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15
Q

On a global scale, the carbon and water cycle are….

A

Closed systems

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16
Q

In the global water and carbon cycle, what is the only energy the crosses the boundaries?

A

The sun’s energy

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17
Q

On a smaller scale, the water and carbon cycle are considered….

A

Open systems as materials as well as the sun’s energy cross the boundaries.

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18
Q

Draw global carbon cycle:

A

See Word Document

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19
Q

Draw global water cycle:

A

See Word Document

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20
Q

Percentage of global water that is in oceans:

A

97%

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21
Q

Percentage of global water that is in polar ice and glaciers:

A

2%

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22
Q

Name the 8 global stores of water:

A

oceans, polar ice + glaciers, groundwater, lakes, soils, atmosphere, rivers, biosphere

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23
Q

How can moisture leave the atmosphere store?

A

precipitation and condensation

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24
Q

What are inputs of water into the water cycle?

A

water vapour evaporated from oceans, lakes and rivers. Vapour transpired through the leaves of plants. (EVAPOTRANSPIRATION)

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25
Q

How do ice sheets and glaciers release water?

A

Ablation

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26
Q

What is run-off?

A

When precipitation and meltwater drain from the land’s surface into rivers.

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27
Q

What is infiltration?

A

When water infiltrates into soil and flows through it before reaching rivers.

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28
Q

What might happen after infiltration?

A

The water may percolate into permeable rocks or aquifers. It is now called groundwater.

29
Q

What might happen to groundwater?

A

It may reach the surface as springs and contribute to runoff.

30
Q

What are the seven global carbon stores?

A

Atmosphere, sedimentary rock, oceans, fossil fuels, sea floor sediments, soils, land plants

31
Q

How many billion tonnes of carbon is stored in sedimentary rock?

A

60,000-100,000,000

32
Q

What is the total amount of carbon circulated by the slow cycle per year?

A

10-10million tonnes

33
Q

What might happen to carbon that has been dissolved into the ocean water?

A

Marin organism may make their shells by fixing dissolved carbon and calcium together to form calcium carbonate. These sink to the ocean floor when dead and decompose there, where over many millions of years, heat and pressure can convert them into carbon rich sedimentary rocks.

34
Q

What is the involvement of chemical weathering in the carbon cycle?

A

Precipitation charged with carbon dioxide form acid rain which attacks carbonate mineral rocks, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

35
Q

What may happen to buried decomposed organic material on land?

A

Become carbonaceous rock over time

36
Q

What are the three main fast carbon cycle stores?

A

atmosphere, oceans and living organisms

37
Q

What are two key fast carbon cycle components?

A

Phytoplankton and land plants as through photosynthesis they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and combine it with water to give them energy

38
Q

What key process to do with the carbon cycle occurs during decomposition?

A

Respiration which releases CO2 into the atmosphere.

39
Q

How does carbon exchange between oceans and atmosphere occur?

A

Atmospheric CO2 dissolves into ocean surfaces whilst oceans ventilate CO2 back into the atmosphere.

40
Q

What is the water balance equation?

A

Precipitation = evapotranspiration + stemflow ± storage

41
Q

Precipitation:

A

Water and ice that falls from clouds

42
Q

What may cause a lag between snowfall and runoff:

A

the fact that in high altitude locations, precipitation often falls as snow and may stay there for several months before melting and causing runoff.

43
Q

What is precipitation intensity:

A

The amount of precipitation that falls.

44
Q

What is precipitation duration?

A

How long a precipitation event lasts. Long events may cause risk of flooding

45
Q

In short, how do clouds form?

A

Water vapour in the atmosphere cools to its dew point and condenses into tiny water droplets or ice droplets to form clouds.

46
Q

Transpiration:

A

Diffusion of water vapour into the atmosphere from the leaf pores of plants.

47
Q

What percentage of the atmosphere’s moisture is transpiration responsible for?

A

10%

48
Q

What is transpiration affected by?

A

temperature, wind speed, water availability and humidity.

49
Q

Condensation:

A

Phase change of water vapour into liquid water. It occurs when air is cooled to dew point.

50
Q

How to cumuliform clouds form?

A

when air is heated locally through contact with the Earth’s surface, causing heated particles with low density to rise via convection, expand and cool.

51
Q

How do stratiform clouds form?

A

Where air masses move horizontally across a cooler surface (often the ocean) by a process called advection.

52
Q

How do wispy cirrus clouds form?

A

At high altitudes that consist of icy water crystals. However they do not produce precipitation.

53
Q

What does condensation near the ground form?

A

Dew or fog

54
Q

Lapse rates:

A

The vertical distribution of temperature in lower atmosphere.

55
Q

Environmental Lapse Rate:

A

Vertical temperature profile of lower atmosphere. On average temperature falls by 6.5 degrees every kilometre of height gained.

56
Q

Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate:

A

Rate at which a dry parcel of air cools. Approx. 10 degrees per kilometre.

57
Q

Saturated Adiabatic Lapse Rate:

A

The rate at which a saturated parcel of air cools as it rises through the atmosphere. Approx 7 degrees per kilometre.

58
Q

What happens after air is warmed by being in contact with ground or sea?

A

It rises freely through atmosphere, pressure falls and it cools via adiabatic expansion.

59
Q

What are three ways air cools other than adiabatic expansion?

A

Advection (moves across cooler surface), air masses rise as they cross mountain barrier, relatively warm air mixes with a cooler one.

60
Q

What is atmospheric instability?

A

Ground heated by sun warms air in contact with it. Because air is warmer than surroundings it is also less dense and buoyant. Atmospheric instability results in air rising freely in a convection current. The air will continue to rise so long as its internal temperature is higher than surroundings. When equilibrium is reached, the atmosphere is stable.

61
Q

What is evaporation?

A

Phase change of liquid to water vapour and is main pathway by which water enters atmosphere.

62
Q

What is needed for evaporation to occur?

A

Heat to break apart the molecular bonds, but this does not produce a rise in temperature, instead energy is absorbed as latent heat and released later in condensation.

63
Q

What is interception?

A

When vegetation intercepts a proportion of precipitation, storing it temporarily on branches, leaves and stems.

64
Q

What is through fall?

A

Rainwater briefly intercepted before hitting the ground.

65
Q

What is stemflow?

A

Water that has flowed along branches and stems of plants and trees before hitting the ground.

66
Q

What are four factors affecting interception loss?

A

Wind speed, vegetation, tree species, interception storage capacity.

67
Q

How does wind speed affect interception loss?

A

Evaporation rates increase with windspeed and turbulence causes additional through fall.

68
Q

How does vegetation type affect interception losses?

A

Interception losses are greater from grasses than from agricultural crops. Trees with a large surface area and roughness have higher interception losses.

A Level Summer - Geography (4 decks)

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