Water Cycle Eq1 Flashcards
What are stores
Places where water is held
What are flows
Processes that move water from one store to another
What are fluxes
We call a flow a flux if we know the quantity
Why is the earth considered a closed hydrological system
Negligible amounts of water enter or leave the atmosphere
What is the cryosphere
Ice caps, glaciers, permanent snow
What are the three biggest stores of water and their percentage of top one
Oceans - 96.5%
Glaciers and ice caps
Ground water
What is an aquifer
A large store of water held within the pore spaces of some rocks
What is stem flow
Rain that is intercepted but then flows down branches, trunks and stems to the ground
What is soil throughflow
Movement of water not due to gravity in the soil but due to differences in hydrostatic pressure
What is throughfall
Rain that falls through vegetation and reaches the ground
What is percolation
Downwards movement of water through soil and rock due to gravity
What is groundwater flow
Movement of water not due to gravity in within pore spaces in rocks
What is permafrost
When the ground stays frozen for at least two years in a row
What are residency times
The average amount of time a water molecule will stay in a store
What is biospheric water
Water held within living things
What stores have the longest and the shortest residency times
Longest - glaciers, ice caps, permafrost, groundwater
Shortest - biospheric water, atmospheric water, river channels
What is a renewable water store
A water store that is being replenished at a rate that is greater than or equal to the rate it is being used
Examples of non renewable water resources
Cryospheric stores
Fossil aquifers, as the store is sealed under the ground by a layer of clay meaning it cannot be replenished
What is a drainage basin
The area of land that is draining water into one river system
What is a watershed
The boundary between two drainage basins
What is the largest drainage basin on earth
Amazon drainage basin
What factors affect drainage basins
Climate
Soils
Relief
Vegetation
Geology
Humans
What is orographic rainfall
Caused by the relief of the land forcing water vapour to rise and cool
What is convectional rainfall
Caused by the heating of the earth’s surface leading to evaporation and precipitation
What is frontal rainfall
Caused by warm air masses rising above denser colder air masses, causing the warm air to cool down and precipitate
What can the amount of precipitation be influenced by
Rates of convection
Monsoon climate
Continentality (places closer to coasts will have more rainfall)
Mountains
What is the intertropical convergence zone
Where trade winds meet
Usually wet environments
What human factors influence the hydrological system
Dams
Over abstraction
Deforestation
Agriculture
Urbanisation
Climate change
Lakes and reservoirs
Three impacts of deforestation on hydrological system
Not enough rainfall for the rainforest to be able to sustain itself as there is less interception and evapotranspiration
More droughts as humidity from rainforest would normally move to other countries
Soils become more compact so there is less infiltration
What is a river regime
The difference in discharge of the river throughout the year, affected by a number of factors
What is a simple river regime
Has a high flow season and a low flow season
What is a complex river regime
Could have multiple high and low flow seasons throughout the year
What is a flood hydrograph
Graph that shows how the discharge of a river responds after a rainfall event
What is lag time
The time between peak rainfall and peak discharge
