Water Cycle Flashcards
Define a system
- A system has stores with transfers between them
What are the two types of systems?
- Open systems (linked to other systems)
- Closed systems (self contained)
What is an example of a closed system?
- Our planet
What is an example of a open system?
- All of the ‘spheres’ as energy and mass are transfered between them
State the inputs for a ‘garden pond’?
- Precipitation
- Leaf fall during autumn
- Seeds carried by wind
State the stores for a ‘garden pond’?
- Water
- Soil
- Plants
State the transfers for a ‘garden pond’?
- Photosynthesis
- Infiltration
- Transpiration
State the outputs for a ‘garden pond’?
- Evaporation
- Seed dispersal
- Water soaking through soil and rocks
What are the two types of feedback?
- Positive feedback
- Negative feedback
Define positive feedback
- A cyclical sequence of events that amplifies or increases change
Define negative feedback
- A cyclical sequence of events which damps down or neutralises the effects of a system
What does a negative feedback loop promote?
- It promotes a state of dynamic equilibrium
What are the two types of permeability?
- Primary (Goes between rocks)
- Secondary (porus rocks) (Goes through the rocks)
State the water cycle
What is trunk trickle?
- Water flowing down tree trunks
What is topography?
- The layout of the land
What are the five ‘spheres’?
- Lithosphere
- Hydrosphere
- Cryosphere
- Atmosphere
- Biosphere
What is the lithosphere?
- The crust and mantle
What is the hydrosphere?
- All of the water on earth
What is the cryosphere?
- A subset of the hydrosphere, all parts where its cold enough to freeze water
What is the atmosphere?
- Gas between earths surface and space
What is the biosphere?
- Where all living things are found
Finish the line…
All of the above are subsystems…
… which are interlinked by cycles and processes that keep earth running as normal
What moves between subsystems?
- Matter
- Energy
What happens if there are changes in one subsystem?
- Affects what happens in others
What is the global distribution of water?
- 96.6% of global water is oceans
- 2.5% of global water is ‘fresh water’
- Most fresh water is stored in glaciers
Define soil moisture budget?
- The balance between water inputs and water outputs
Learn this graph on soil moisture budgets?
What factors influence how water flows within a drainage basin?
- Vegetation and land use
- Soil type and depth
- Type of rock
- Rainfall
- Shape of the land
- Climate
- Conditions in drainage basin
- Size and shape of river basin
What is interception?
- Rain being caught by e.g trees
What is infiltration?
- Water on surface entering the soil
What is percolation?
- The gravity flow of water within the soil
What is surface runoff?
- Water which flows over the land surface
What is throughflow?
- The sporadic horizontal flow of water within the soil. It normally takes place when soil is completly saturated.
What is groundwater flow?
- The deeper movement of water through permeable rock below the water table.
What is transpiration?
- Where moisture is brought through plants from their roots to the tiny pores called stomata. Water is transformed into gas and released into atmosphere.
What is evapotranspiration?
- The sum of evaporation and transpiration
What factors affect hydrographs?
- Precipitation / Heavy rainfall
- Tree lined river banks
- Size and shape of drainage basin
- Rock type (permeable or impermeable)
- Saturated soil
- Steep or shallow sloping river course
- Urban or rural
What are some physical causes of flooding?
- Rock type
- Topography
- Precipitation
- Permeable or impermeable
- Vegetation
- Shape of basin
What are some human causes of flooding?
- Infrastructure
- Quality of drainage systems
- Built up impermeable surfaces
State some facts for ‘Gatwick Flood Defence’ case study
- Gatwick stream flood alleviation is where water floods instead of south terminal
- Biodiversity is importat so oaktrees kept to allow bats to live there
- Meanders were created to increase capacity of river and take river on more natural course
- 186000 m3 of flood storage avalible
What does antecedant conditions mean?
- Ground is saturated
What are the three types of flooding?
- Fluvial: Water level overflows banks
- Pluvial: Independant of overflowing water body
- Groundwater flooding: Hydro static pressure
