Water cycle Flashcards
How are clouds formed?
Evaporation from ocean storage that condenses to form clouds
How does water move from vegetation?
Acts as an interception from precipitation. Transpiration, respiring leaves, stem flow to surface storage
State the stages that water takes to get to groundwater storage and aquifers
Precipitation (interception, stem flow), surface storage, infiltration, soil storage, percolation (through rocks), groundwater storage
What is percolation?
movement of surface and soil water into underlying permeable rocks
What is an aquifer?
Water bearing band of pourrous or permeable rock, water infiltrates through soil then percolates into rocks.
How can geology affect the water cycle under ground?
more porous and permeable rocks = more water held via percolation forming aquifers.
What is channel storage and what does it lead to?
Storage of water In river channels. Goes to channel flow them ocean storage via estuarys
What is infiltration?
Movement of water from surface storage to soil storage
What is transpiration?
Evaporation of water from the pores (stoma) of leaves
Where can water go from soil storage?
Either percolate into rocks or move through soil via through flow into channel storage.
What type of system is the water system?
It’s closed
Why is the water cycle a closed system?
Only energy crosses boundaries, not matter because no new water is added, it just circulates
define a system
A group of objects and the relationship between them
What is sublimation?
Ice to water vapour directly
What is the difference between melting and sublimation?
Sublimation does not have a liquid phase but melting does
Where does precipitation go?
Onto interception (vegetation), surface storage, ocean storage and channel storage.
How do clouds moderate global temperature?
They absorb insolation (the suns radiation) as well as reflecting it, leading to reduced surface temperatures
How do oceans moderate global temperature?
Oceans absorb heat and release it via evaporation
How much of the earth surface is ocean storage?
71%
Socioeconomic uses of water:
- Irrigation for farming and food cycle maintenance
- energy generation (hydroelectric, wave, geothermal)
- recreational activities eg fishing, surfing, swimming
- manufacturing eg. paper, jeans, plastic
Biospheric importance of water:
- habitat maintenance
- photosynthesis input
- transport of nutrients in organisms
- metabolism
- forming and splitting molecules
- food cycle
define biosphere
The space at the Earth surface and within the atmosphere occupied by living organisms
Role of water vapour in the atmosphere
Absorbs long-wave radiation in the atmosphere to regulate global temperatures.
Define residence time
The length of time a molecule [eg H2O or CO2] that it spends in natural storage eg ocean, atmosphere
What are the 3 main water stores?
AOL - Atmosphere, oceans and land
Residence time of water molecule in the ocean
3000 years on average
Residence time of water molecule in the atmosphere
10 days on average
Residence time of water molecule on land
its variable
How much water is stored in the ocean in gigatonnes?
1,370,000 GT
How much water is stored in the atmosphere in gigatonnes?
13Gt
How much water is stored on land in gigatonnes?
39,000Gt
What’s the process of water from Land to atmosphere?
Evapotranspiration
What’s the process of water from atmosphere to the land or ocean?
Precipitation
What’s the process of water from ocean to the atmosphere ?
evaporation
What percentage of all global water is in oceans?
97% of all water is in oceans
What percentage of all global water is in aquifers or groundwater storage?
0.7% of all global water is in groundwater storage/aquifers
How does water moderate global temperatures?
- water vapour traps LW radiation
- ice reflects insolation
- clouds absorb and reflect insolation to reduce surface temperatures
- oceans absorb heat and get rid of it via evaporation
