Carbon and Water - Water Cycle

Question 1

What are the main stores of Water?

Answer 1

• Hydrosphere (Liquid) – main form oceanic water (97%) and freshwater made from ice caps and glaciers (3%)
• Cryosphere (ice) – found at high latitude and altitude
• Lithosphere (groundwater) – collects underground from infiltration in aquifers
• Atmosphere (air) – water vapour

Question 2

What are the ways water can be transferred?

Answer 2

• Evaporation – water moving from hydrosphere to atmosphere
• Transpiration – water moves from vegetation to atmosphere
• Condensation – atmosphere to hydrosphere
• Evapotranspiration

Question 3

What is a Drainage Basin?

Answer 3

Or Catchment Area that supplies river with water

Question 4

What are the inputs and stores in a Drainage Basin?

Answer 4

Inputs:
Precipitation on land and sea
Stores:
Lakes and surface water, river channels, interception (rainforest vegetation can intercept up to 58% of precipitation), soil, groundwater

Question 5

What are the transfers in a Drainage Basin System?

Answer 5

Overland flow, throughflow (precipitation that isn’t intercepted by vegetation) stemflow (Precipitation that flows down trunks) infiltration (into soil), Percolation (deeper infiltration into bedrock), groundwater flow (in deeper rock/bedrock)

Question 6

What are the outputs of a Drainage Basin System?

Answer 6

Transpiration from vegetation, evaporation from water surfaces, run off, evaporation from sea

Question 7

What are the physical features that effect a Flood Hydrograph?

Answer 7

steepness and relief, soil saturation, vegetation/interception, size of catchment or river basin, volume of precipitation.

Question 8

What are the human factors that effect a Flood Hydrograph?

Answer 8

deforestation, afforestation, agriculture (ploughing breaks topsoil increasing infiltration), urban areas and land use changes (concrete is less permeable so less infiltration).