Water and carbon cycles 3 - Drainage Basin

Question 1

What type of systems are drainage basins?

Answer 1

Natural systems viewed as open hydrological cycles

Question 2

What is a drainage basin?

Answer 2

The area surrounding the river where the rain falling on the land falls into that river

Question 3

What is the watershed?

Answer 3

The boundary of a drainage basin

Question 4

What is this area also known as?

Answer 4

Catchment

Question 5

What happens to precipitation falling beyond the water shed?

Answer 5

Enters a different basin

Question 6

What kind of system is a drainage basin

Answer 6

Open - receives inputs and outputs

Question 7

How does water come into the system

Answer 7

Precipitation

Question 8

How does water leave the system

Answer 8

Evaporation, transpiration and river discharge

Question 9

What is an input

Answer 9

Water coming into the system

Question 10

How does this happen

Answer 10

Through Precipitation

Question 11

How is precipitation an input

Answer 11

Includes all the ways moisture comes out of the atmosphere. Precipitation is mainly rain, but also includes snow, hail, dew and frost

Question 12

What is a store?

Answer 12

Water stored in the system

Question 13

What are the 6 stores of a drainage basin

Answer 13

• Interception
• Vegetation storage
• surface storage
• Soil storage
• Groundwater storage
• Channel storage

Question 14

What is interception

Answer 14

When some precipitation lands on vegetation or other structures, like buildings or surface or in wooded areas. It is only temporary because the water collected may evaporate quickly or fall from the leaves as through fall

Question 15

What is vegetation storage

Answer 15

Water that’s been taken up by plants. All the water contained in plants at one time

Question 16

What is surface storage

Answer 16

Includes water in puddles (depression storage), ponds and lakes

Question 17

What is soil storage

Answer 17

Includes moisture in soil

Question 18

What is groundwater storage

Answer 18

Water stored in the ground, either in the soil or rocks. The water table is the top surface of the zone of saturation .

Question 19

What is the zone of saturation?

Answer 19

the zone of soil or rock where all the pores in the soil or rock are full of water

Question 20

What are p0orous rocks that hold water called

Answer 20

aquifers

Question 21

What is channel storage

Answer 21

Te water held in a river or stream channel

Question 22

What are flows

Answer 22

Water moving from one place to another

Question 23

What are the 10 flows in the basin

Answer 23

• Infiltration
• overland flow / runoff
• Throughfall
• Stemflow
• Throughflow
• Percolation
• Groundwater flow
• Baseflow
• Interflow
• Channel flow / river discharge

Question 24

What is infiltration

Answer 24

Water soaking in the soil. Infiltration rates are influenced by soil type, structure and how much water is already in the soil

Question 25

What is overland flow / runoff

Answer 25

Water flowing over land. It can flow over the whole surface or in little channels. It happens because rain is falling on the ground faster than infiltration can occur

Question 26

What is through fall

Answer 26

Water dripping from 1 leaf to another

Question 27

What is stem flow

Answer 27

Water running down a plant stem or tree trunk

Question 28

What is through flow

Answer 28

Water moving slowly downhill through soil. It's faster through pipes - things like cracks in the soil or animal burrows

Question 29

What is percolation

Answer 29

The water seeping down through soil into the water table

Question 30

What is groundwater flow

Answer 30

The water flowing slowly below the water table through permeable rock. Water flows slowly through most rocks, but rocks that are highly permeable with lots of joints have faster groundwater growth

Question 31

What is base flow

Answer 31

Groundwater flow that feeds into rivers through riverbanks and river beds

Question 32

What is interflow

Answer 32

Water flowing downhill through permeable rock above the water table

Question 33

What is channel flow / river discharge

Answer 33

Water flowing in the river or stream itself

Question 34

What is an output

Answer 34

Water leaving the system

Question 35

What are the 4 outputs

Answer 35

- Evaporation - Transpiration - Evapotranspiration - River discharge / flow

Question 36

What is evaporation

Answer 36

Water turning into water vapour

Question 37

What is transpiration

Answer 37

Evaporation in leaves - plants and trees take up water through their roots and transport it to their leaves where it evaporates to the atmosphere

Question 38

What is evapotranspiration

Answer 38

Evaporation and transpiration together

Question 39

What is potential evapotranspiration (PET) in comparison to actual evapotranspiration

Answer 39

The amount of water that could be lost by evapotranspiration, where as in actual it happens

Question 40

What is river discharge / flow

Answer 40

The discharge of a river is the volume of water that flows through at a given time. Normally measured in cubic metres per second

Question 40

What is evapotranspiration like in the dessert

Answer 40

PET is high as heat increases evaporation, but actual transpiration is low as there isn't much moisture

Question 41

What does the water balance show

Answer 41

The balance between inputs and outputs

Question 42

What does the water balance affect

Answer 42

How much water is stored in the basin

Question 43

What does the general water balance in the UK show

Answer 43

Seasonal patterns

Question 44

What happens in wet seasons

Answer 44

Precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration

Question 45

What does this create

Answer 45

A water surplus

Question 46

Why does this create a surplus

Answer 46

The ground stores fill with water so there more surface run off and higher discharge so river levels rise

Question 47

What happens in drier seasons

Answer 47

Precipitation is lower than evapotranspiration

Question 48

What happens to the groundwater stores

Answer 48

They're depleted as some water is used by plants or humans and some flows into the river channel but isn't replaced by precipitation

Question 49

What happens at the end of the dry season

Answer 49

There's a deficit of water in the ground. The ground stores are recharged in the next season