Water And Carbon: The Water Cycle Flashcards
What is ablation?
The process by which glaciers lose ice mass, primarily through melting and sublimation.
What is the rain shadow effect?
An area having relatively less precipitation due to the sheltering effect of mountains.
What is relief rainfall?
Rainfall that occurs when moist air is forced to rise over a mountain or hill barrier, cooling and condensing to form clouds and precipitation.
What is accumulation?
The process by which glaciers gain ice mass, mainly from snowfall.
System definition
An assemblage of interrelated parts that work together by way of some driving process. They are a series of stores or components that have flows or connections between them. e.g water, carbon, nutrient cycle
What is percolation?
The downward movement of water within the rock under the soil surface
What is sublimation?
The process where a solid changes directly into a gas without passing through a liquid phase and vice versa.
What is channel flow?
The movement of water within the river channel
What is a negative feedback loop?
A cycle of events in which the effects of an action are nullified by its subsequent knock-on effects.
What is convectional rainfall?
A type of precipitation that occurs when warm air rises rapidly, cools, and condenses to form rain. As the air rises, the temperature drops and the relative humidity increases. This usually occurs in warm or hot areas and can form hail
What is discharge?
The amount of wate in a river flowing past a particular point (expressed as cumecs)
What is a soil moisture surplus?
Where water supply exceeds content capacity
What is a soil moisture deficit?
When potential evapotranspiration is greater than actual evapotranspiration
What is soil moisture utilisation?
When precipitation is no longer able to meet the demands of potential evapotranspiration
What is soil moisture recharge?
As precipitation exceeds evaporation rates, the soil will regain its deficit.
What is soil moisture?
The total amount of water including water vapour in an unsaturated soil.
What is the water balance?
The balance between the income and outflow of water.
What is through flow?
The movement of water down a slope through the sub-soil under the influence of gravity
What is throughfall?
The portion of precipitation that reaches the ground directly through gaps in the vegetation canopy
What is vegetation storage?
Water taken up by vegetation
What is stem flow?
The flow of intercepted water down the trunk or stem of a plant
What is surface runoff?
The flow of water that occurs over the earth’s surface.
What is river discharge?
The volume of water flowing through a river channel
What is channel storage?
The volume of water within the river channel
What is base flow?
A portion of the stream flow that is not runoff
What is interflow?
The rapid flow of water along essentially unsaturated flow paths
What is groundwater storage?
Water stored underground, primarily in aquifers
What is Drizzle?
Light liquid precipitation consisting of tiny droplets.
How is hoar frost formed?
Hoar frost forms when dew point temperatures are below freezing and water vapor sublimates directly into ice crystals without becoming a liquid first. This usually occurs on clear nights with little wind.
What is the cryosphere?
The frozen water part of the Earth system, including glaciers, ice caps, and sea ice.
What is the catchment area?
The area from which rainfall flows into a river, lake, or reservoir.
What is the water table?
The level below which the ground is saturated with water.
What is the watershed?
An area of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.
What is an aquifer?
A body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater.
What is hail?
Pellets of frozen rain that fall in showers from cumulonimbus clouds.
What is sleet?
Precipitation in the form of ice pellets formed by the freezing of raindrops or refreezing of partly melted snowflakes.
What is frontal rainfall?
Occurs when warm air is forced to rise over cold air at a front, leading to cooling and condensation.This occurs at the weather front and if the air is below 0 degrees, snow can form.
What is overland flow?
The tendency of water to flow horizontally across land surfaces when rainfall hits the ground surface
What is interception storage
The precipitation that falls on the vegetation surface or human-made cover and is temporarily stored on these surfaces
What is infiltration?
The downward movement of water from the surface into soil
What is groundwater flow?
The slow movement of water through underlying rocks
What is transpiration?
The process of water movement in a plant
What is evaporation?
The process by which liquid water changes to gas
What is a drainage basin?
An area of land drained by a river and its tributaries
What is precipitation?
- Condensation is the direct cause of all precipitation
- Adiabatic cooling: the volume of air increases, but no heat is added
- A reduction in temperature and Adiabatic cooling causes precipitation
What is condensation?
- Excess water in the air is converted to water at the dew point temperature
- The water molecules need something to condense on: condensation nuclei or surfaces
- If the surface is below freezing then the water sublimates changing directly from gas to solid to form hoar frost
What are the variables regarding rate of evaporation?
- Amount of Solar Energy
- Water Availability
- Humidity of the air (high water saturation, slower rate)
- Temperature of the air
- Transpiration/evaporation from plants
What are the Earth’s sub-systems?
Earth is considered a closed system:
- Atmosphere
- Lithosphere (crust)
- Hydrosphere (water)
- Biosphere (living creatures/vegetation)
What is a positive feedback loop?
A cycle of events in which the effects of an action are amplified by secondary effects
What is feedback?
How a system responds to a change
What is dynamic equilibrium?
When there is a balance between the inputs and outputs in a system
What is an isolated system?
These have no interactions with anything outside the system boundary. There is no input or output of energy or matter.e.g the Universe is the only true natural example of an isolated system
What is a closed system?
These have transfers of energy both into and beyond the system boundary. No transfer of mass
What is an open system?
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 are relationships?
Descriptions of how the various elements and their attributes work together to carry out a process
What are attributes?
The perceived characteristics of the element
What are components and elements?
The things that make up the system of interest
What are stores?
A part of the system where energy/mass is stored
