Global Water Cycle

Question 1

Input

Answer 1

water flow into a store

Question 2

output

Answer 2

water flow leaving a store

Question 3

mass balance

Answer 3

when input=output

Question 4

what type of system is the global hydrological cycle?

Answer 4

a closed system

Question 5

Examples of flows

Answer 5

precipitation, evaporation, transpiration

Question 6

examples of stores

Answer 6

oceans (liquid)
atmosphere (water vapour and ice crystals)
cryosphere (solid ice)
land (liquid - rivers)

Question 7

seasonal changes in cryosphere

Answer 7

ice accumulation and ablation

reducing storage size due to anthropogenic climate change

Question 8

long term changes in cryosphere

Answer 8

much greater store 650-750 mill years ago
global changes due to earths orbit around the sun = milankovitch cycles
plate tectonic movement

Question 9

short term/seasonal changes in rainfall

Answer 9

monsoon season
more than 2/3ds of yearly rainfall falls in the space of 3 months in SW India
el Nino - Peru waters become warm, cooler in Australia and Indonesia
Dry in SE Asia, rainfall increases in California

Question 10

Long term changes in rainfall

Answer 10

longer periods of drought and increased heavy and episodic downpours
high aridity in china, Australia and USA
UK have longer, hotter summers and warmer wetter winters

Question 11

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets

Answer 11

contain +99% of freshwater ice on earth
6m rise when Greenland melts and 60m rise when antarctic melts
global sea level has risen by 20cm since 1900
this is due to thermal expansion and global warming