The Water Cycle Flashcards
How much water is stored as liquid in oceans?
97%
what is the most common way for water to be stored in the atmosphere?
As water vapour
How much of earth do oceans cover?
72%
What term is used to describe the length of time water is kept in a store?
Residence time
What has the longest and shortest residence time?
Longest - Ocean
Shortest - Atmosphere
What are the 4 stores of water and what do they mean?
Cryosphere - Water in solid form - ice
Oceanic water - water in oceans
Terrestrial water - Water on land surface or underground
Atmospheric water - water stored in the atmosphere
What are the 4 main types of Terrestrial water?
Surface water - any body of water above ground
Ground water - water present beneath Earth’s surface
Soil water - water in soil
Biological water - all of the water stored in plant and animal matter on Earth
How much of the available fresh water is held in 10 countries?
60%
What is preciptation?
Input into the water cycle
water and ice that falls from clouds to the ground
What is snowmelt?
Loss of ice due to melting, evaporation and sublimation
major component of the global movement of water
up to 75% of water in western USA comes from snowmelt
What is evapotranspiration?
The combination of transpiration and evaporation
outputs of the water cycle
What is Evaporation?
Process by which liquid water is converted into a gaseous state
What is transpiration?
Evaporated moisture from pores on a leaf surface or plant stomata
What is precipitation?
Moisture falling from clouds towards the ground
What is Ablation?
Loss of ice and snow through melting + sublimation
What is sublimation?
When water goes directly from the solid to the gas state
What is groundwater flow?
Horizontal movement of water within aquifers
What is condensation?
State change of water vapour to liquid water`
What is intercepetion?
Rainwater stored in leaves and stems which is then evaporated
What is Infiltration?
Vertical movement of rainwater through soil
What is Throughflow?
water flowing horizontally through soil into rivers
What is the Water balance equation?
Precipitation = Evapotranspiration + streamflow +/- storage
What is the troposphere?
the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere
where all weather takes place
What is the Dew Point?
the critical temperature when air becomes saturated and can hold no more vapour
What happens at the Dew Point?
condensation as excess vapour changes state to form water droplets
Precipitation then develops either through a complex process of these water droplets
combining or ice crystals growing within clouds
What is a drainage basin?
the area of land that is drained by a river and its tributaries
The edge of a river basin is marked by a boundary called the watershed
What is latent heat?
the heat required to convert a solid into a liquid or vapour, or a liquid into a vapour, without change of temperature
What is through fall?
the part of rainfall or other precipitation which falls to the forest floor from the canopy
What is stem flow?
Intercepted rain flowing down the trunk or stem of the plant
