Geography Physical 1

Question 1

Outline the seasonal changes in the water balance

Answer 1

• In UK summers you have on average warmer temperatures which increases the rate of evaporation moving water from hydrospheric to atmospheric store
• Very warm conditions in the summer can result in channel flow stopping due to rivers drying up hence low surface runoff and throughflow
• Climate change makes predicting seasonal changes in water balance much harder due to weather events becoming more unpredictable and seeing more annomalies in different seasons
• Not only this but transpiration is also high in summer (hence evapotranspiration is high) which means groundwater stores are depleted due to there being a water deficit. This occurs until precipitation is greater than evapotranspiration recharging soils in the pedospheric store
• Seasons with high levels of precipitation increase surface runoff and channel flow.
• Ice melting during warmer seasons moves water from the cryospheric to hydrospheric store

Question 2

Assess the extent to which changes to the carbon cycle will affect the oceans

Answer 2

1. Changes to the carbon cycle will affect the oceans to a large extent
2. Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 lead to the enhanced greehouse effect increasing global average temperature this will lead to the melting of icecaps which moves water from the cryospheric to the hydrospheric store
3. Warming oceans are causing coral bleaching reducing biodiversity in the oceans. The increasing acidity of the oceans due to the oceans absorbing large amounts of anthropogenic CO2 produced is also causing living creatures shells to dissolve hence affect oceans and their wildlife
4. The warming of oceans is also causing large numbers of species in oceans to migrate
5. The thermohaline circulation is being weakend due to increased fresh water entering the oceans which is affecting the oceans due to increased anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and is at risk from stopping in the future which would cause catastrophic climate change
6. On the other hand if anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are halted and we achieve net zero carbon then oceans will not be affected greatly as changes to the carbon cycle are minimum