Key Terms Flashcards
What is a flow/transfer
A form of linkage between one store/component and another that involves movement of energy or mass
What is an input
The addition of matter and/or energy into a system
What is a store/component
A part of the system where energy/mass is stored or transformed
What is a system
A set of interrelated components working together towards some kind of process
What are 2 examples of models?
- the water cycle
- the system
What is a system?
An assemblage of interrelated parts, a series of stores or components that have flows or connections between them
What are the three types of property?
Elements, attributes and relationships
What are elements?
The things that make up the system of interest
What are attributes?
The perceived characteristics of the elements
What are relationships?
Descriptions of how the various elements (and their attributes) work together to carry out some kind of process
What characteristics do most systems share?
- they have a structure that lies within a boundary
- they are generalisations of reality, removing incidental detail that obscures fundamental relationships
- they function by having inputs and outputs of material (energy or matter) that is processed within the components causing it to change in some way
What is atmospheric water?
Water found in the atmosphere mainly water vapour with some liquid water (cloud and rain droplets) and ice crystals
What is cryospheric water?
The water locked up on the earths surface as ice
What is the hydrosphere?
A discontinuous layer of water at or near the earths surface, it includes all liquid and frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and rock and atmospheric water vapour
What is oceanic water?
The water contained in the earths oceans and seas but not including such inland seas as the caspian sea
What is terrestrial water?
This consists of groundwater, soil moisture, lakes, wetlands and rivers
What are isolated systems?
No interactions with anything outside the system boundary
No input or output of energy or matter
Many controlled laboratory experiments are this type of system and they are rare in nature
What are closed systems?
Have transfers of energy both into and beyond the system boundary but not a transfer of matter
What are open systems?
Where matter and energy can be transferred from the system across the boundary into the surrounding environment
Most ecosystems are examples of open systems
What is dynamic equilibrium?
When there is a balance between the inputs and the outputs
What is positive feedback?
Where the effects of an action are amplified or multiplied by subsequent knock on or secondary effects
What is negative feedback?
Where the effects of an action are nullified by its subsequent knock on effects
What is bankfull?
The maximum discharge that a river channel is capable of carrying with out flooding
What is base flow?
The normal day-to-day discharge of the river and is the consequence of slow moving soil throughflow and groundwater seeping into the river channel
