Water and carbon cycles - definitions Flashcards
What is the atmosphere?
The mixture of gases that surround the Earth whose main constituents are nitrogen and oxygen.
What is the biosphere?
That portion of the Earth’s outer sphere where life forms are found.
What is the carbon budget?
The relative amounts of carbon that are transferred in a given time period between the various stores of carbon.
What is the carbon cycle?
The combination of processes by which carbon is transferred between the main carbon stores.
What is carbon sequestration?
The long-term storage of carbon. This process occurs naturally in oceans and sediments. It can also refer to the human process of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it.
What is the cryosphere?
The frozen water component of the Earth’s outer layers, including ice caps, glaciers and snow cover.
What is a drainage basin?
The area of land from which precipitation is drained by a river and its tributaries.
What is evapo-transpiration?
The combined processes of evaporation and transpiration transferring water from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere.
What is groundwater?
The store of water beneath the Earth’s surface in soil and rock in pore and fissure space.
What is the hydrosphere?
That portion of the Earth’s surface layers contain water, including ice, groundwater, lakes and rivers, oceans and water vapour and droplets in the atmosphere.
What is the lithosphere?
The crust and upper mantle comprising the outermost solid layer of the Earth.
What is runoff?
Water transferred from river basins to oceans, principally via river channels.
What is stemflow?
Precipitation that is intercepted by vegetation and reaches the ground by flowing down stems, stalks and trunks.
What is variation?
How far and how frequently a phenomenon differs from the norm or the average.
What is water abstraction?
The process of taking or extracting water from natural sources for different uses by human populations.
What is water balance?
The balance, in a drainage basin, between the inputs of water, mainly precipitation, and the outputs of water, mainly run-off, flows of groundwater and evapotranspiration.
What is the water cycle?
The continuous series of processes by which water is transferred between the main water stores.
