Water & Carbon cycle Flashcards
(25 cards)
Key facts about the River Eden drainage basin
- It is located in Cumbria, north-west England between the mountains of the Lake District (west) the Yorkshire Dales (south) and the Pennines (east)
- It is 145km in length
- Drains in a north-west direction
- Mainly rural catchment area
The source is Black Fell Moss, Mallerstang Valley (670m), Pennine Hills , the mouth is Solway Firth is close to Carlisle (30mi from carlisle) - It flows through the city of Carlisle
What is the Climate and Rainfall like in the River Eden Drainage basin?
average annual rainfall exceeds 2800mm, national average is 920mm
mild temp of 4-20c
high rainfall and steep terrain = less lag time = flashy
What are the factors affecting flooding in the River Eden Drainage Basin
Land Use:
- Predominately agricultural land of different grading. - most = high Quality,Grade 2: Very Good Quality Agricultural Land- located alongside the main river channel in the middle and lower course.
- Some is bad though: Grade 5: Very Poor Quality Agricultural Land- High land around the watershed. (think about why it’s high/low quality)
- Beef and dairy farming regions on Solway Plain near the mouth of the river.
- The Eden valley contains 7,667 ha of woodland (9.5%per cent of the total area)
- 1 % classified as urban: the main urban areas are Carlisle, Penrith and Appleby.
- Between the last two censuses (held in 2011 and 2021), the population of Eden increased by 4.1%, from just under 52,600 in 2011 to around 54,700 in 2021.
What is the Shape, Relief, Geology and responsiveness to rainfall like at the River Eden Drainage Basin
- The slopes within the drainage basin are steep. reduces lag time, water will reach the river channel faster after precipitation, -> increasing peak discharge. In upper catchment, high rainfall and steep terrain make Eden a ‘fast-responding’ catchment, where high river levels occur soon after heavy rainfall.
- In Kirkby Stephen, the River Eden will respond to rainfall in around 1.5 hours.
- The time taken for rain falling on the top of Helvellyn, the highest point in the Eamont catchment, to reach Ullswater Lake is around 2 hours.
- ## Igneous rocks in the west are impermeable, these are at higher ground (higher surface run-off if high and a v-shaped valley)
What are the factors affecting flooding in the River Eden Drainage Basin (physical)
- Western parts of the UK (like where Cumbria is located) could get up to 38% more winter rainfall by 2080, increasing the chances of flash floods and river flooding. (bc of C.C)
- We have already seen the impact of extreme weather in the drainage basin in 2009 and 2015 with record breaking Storm Desmond. Other named storms since, such as Storm Ciara in 2019 also caused considerable flooding.
- Orographic rainfall
Aral Sea
Key facts:
- located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
- It is to the east of the Caspian Sea
- It is part of the Turkestan Desert which can reach 60C
History, time and space:
- in 1960s Russians came and used the water for agriculture, pumped all out of Sea to grow cotton
- They diverted the river so that water was accessible in driest regions of Asia for irrigation, this stopped any river flow to the Aral Sea
- From 1960 to 1998, the sea’s surface area shrank by 60%, and its volume by 80%. In 1960, the Aral Sea had been the world’s fourth-largest lake
- Has receded significantly in recent times but the rate is slowing down according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2005
What are the impacts of the shrinkage of the Aral Sea, which are the most significant?
Social effects:
- the increase in the number of dust storms because dry blowing salt, pesticides and herbicides has led to more respiratory illnesses including tuberculosis kidney and liver diseases, respiratory
infections, allergies and cancer
- Average life expectancy in the Kzyl-Orda region of Kazakhstan has declined from 64 to 51 years
- 87% of newborn babies are also anemic
Economic Effects:
- Used to provide jobs to 40,000-60,000 fishermen
- agricultural output has declined by 30-50% due to soil salinity, climate change, water deficiency, and reduced labor productivity due to health
problems
Environmental effects:
- salinity has increased from 1%-10%, this is 3x more saline than sea water
- More than 24 species of fish used to live here, 20 of these were endemic (only found here)
- Sea lost 90% of its volume
(political effects)
Where is water stored?
around 97% in hydrosphere - Pacific Ocean is the largest body of water, 50% of world’s oceanic water
1. 1.7% in lithosphere and cryosphere for example the Antarctic ice sheet covers 14m square miles, roughly size of US and Mexico combined (crust and upper mantle and frozen areas)
2. 0.001% in atmosphere (layer of gas surrounding the planet)
Impacts of changes to water stores
- only 0.5% of water on Earth is useable and available fresh water, w 60% being in the Antarctic ice sheet - iif it melts where is all of that going to go
- 2 billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water
- > limiting global warming to 1.5-2C would halve proportion of people expected to suffer from water scarcity
- if there’s more evaporation then more water vapour in atmosphere = more tropical storms - Hazards link
- IF GREENLAND ICE SHEET MELTS, WILL RAISE GLOBAL SEA LEVELS BY 6M!!!!!!
Key facts about the Amazon Rainforest
Spatial and Temporal
Spatial:
- southern hemisphere and present in 9 South American countries, Brazil = 60%
- 300 billion trees and 15,000 species store 1/5 of world’s carbon in biomass
- Amazon River is 6,600 km long and is an important freshwater source
- largest rainforest in the world, 5.5km2
- Hot wet and humid = avg rainfall is 2300 but can be 6000mm in NW
What are the impacts of changes in the carbon cycle, and why are these more significant to changes in the water cycle?
Carbon dioxide is the most anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, contributing to 65% of all radiative forcing by these gases (reflecting infrared radiation)
What are the causes of changes to the magnitude of stores in the carbon cycle, and why are these important to understand?
How does the drainage basin hydrological system work?
use cheat sheet pls.
Changes over time to the Carbon Cycle (human factors pt 1)
HYDROCARBON FUEL EXTRACTION AND BURNING
* Since 1960s, global concentrations of CO2 have risen from 320 ppm to just over** 418 ppm (2022)** = highest recorded level ever
* Are compounds of hydrogen and carbon and fossil fuels are type of HC which forms from compressed remains of organic material at bottom of oceans over millions of years -> lock up carbon but released when extracted and burned
* 90% of emissions of CO2 come from this
CASE STUDY:
* i.e Canada tar sands project = biggest energy project in world, currently producing 1.9 million barrels of oil/day. Largely located in Alberta, the tar sands deposits are distributed over an area of 140,000 km² – an area larger than England.
* 2024 study revealed that emissions from Canada’s project were underestimated by up to 6,300%, indicating environmental impact is far greater than previously reported
* Industrial activities and wildfires have degraded nearly 2m acres of boreal forest since the early 2000s, threatening vital habitats and the forest’s role as a carbon sink
FARMING PRACTICES
Assess the impacts of deforestation on the water and carbon cycles, make reference to the impacts on feedback cycles?
(Tropical rainforest and maybe River Eden
DEFORESTATION:
- accounts for 15% of GHG emissions, soil c exposed to atomsphere
Human factors impacting upon the water cycle (Inc links to carbon cycle ones)
Water abstraction :
Case study: The mississippi Drainage Basin + impacts of urbanisation and agriculture
- Location and key facts:
- Central USA and is the 4th largest drainage basin in the world, covers 1.2 square miles
- Mouth is the Gulf of America (was G of México but..)
- The source is Lake Itasca
- Mississippi drains about 41% of the country’s rivers
Agriculture impacts:
- In western part of drainage basin where agriculture is key econ activity (92% of USA’s total agric export) most runoff is collected in reservoirs for irrigation-> imp w cycle because disrupts flow of water and stops alot of water from entering the river channel
- The use of irrigation results in higher levels of evapotranspiration from crops
Reservoir operation (river engineering)
- along the river course, there are 43 dams which hold back the water
- 6% of total runoff is evaporated to atmos in summer months from surface of reservoirs
Natural variation in the water cycle over time
Storm events:
Seasonal Changes:
- In winter gets colder so size of flows reduces and size of cryospheric stores increases, but precip can also increase = water surplus
- CASE STUDY MISSISSIPPI DRAINAGE BASIN:
- flow of river is maintained by runoff from precipitation or snowmelt (snowmelt from the northern and western regions of the United States, including states Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missouri and Ohio River basins)
- -> not all of it is runoff, some is infiltrated and is eventually transpired by plants or evaporates directly into atmos.
Vegetation:
- evapotranspiration loss accounts for 3/4+ of the annual precipitation, varies regionally as in arid areas in the west, there is little run off after evapotranspiration occurs
Assess the impacts of farming on the carbon/water cycle
How do water and carbon cycles normally operate in the Amazon rainforest? (how does this link to other topics, what else can you link this to?)
The normal water cycle:
- lots of its rain is generated by convectional rainfall
- High temperatures means that lots of evapotranspiration = lots of water vapour returned to the atmosphere = high precip levels - contributes to cloud formation and precip.
- -> 1/2 of precip that falls here is generated as a result of evaporation and evapotranspiration
- 25-50% of rainfall in mazon basin was recucled moisture - originated from forest itself
- Avg temp = 24C, so decomp at faster rate
The normal carbon cycle:
- Amazon was a carbon sink, most of its carbon is stored in its vegetation and soil
- in a normal year Amazon absorbs 2.2bn tons of CO2
- around 123bn tons of C believed to be absorbed in the Amazon according to NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Association)
Human interventions in the carbon cycle
REDUCING C EMISSIONS:
- Carbon cap and trade schemes have been implemented in the EU and the cap level of C emissions has decreased, forcing firms to improve C tech and efficiency -> 2013-2020 EU wide cap and 300 million allowances set aside in the New Entrants Reserve to fund the deployment of innovative, renewable energy technologies and carbon capture and storage through the NER 300 programme.
AFFORESTATION
- Research from Crowther Lab showed 1trn new trees could absorb 1/3 of CO2 emissions by humans
- additional 25% of forested area could absorb 25% of atmospheric carbon globally
- World’s taking this into consideration: NGO WeForest works across 3 continents and twelve countries with a vision of nature + society integrated.
- aim to integrate trees among existing farmland and help to accelerate natural recovery of degraded land - 2020 protected and restored 160mil. m^2 forest.
CCS:
- Boundary dam CCS plant Canada = 90% of CO2 emissions from factory
- then stored deep underground in geological formations - also helps push more oil out of ground
- built by power plant Sask Power
- cost $800m
LOCAL SCALE: YACHANA LODGE?
How are the water and carbon cycles related
Impacts of Carbon on the water and carbon cycle:
- increased ocean warming means that they can’t hold as much CO2? (why - because easier to dissolve in colder water?)
-
How has the water cycle changed in the Amazon? what caused these changes and evaluate the significance of them
Spatial scale:
- In deforested areas has been 30-40% decrease in evapotranspiration
- There’s less moisture recycling which is leading to less rainfall downwind
- south eastern area is much more vulnerable compared to other regions
- regions in the western part of the Amazon basin have received more rainfall during the last decades
- deforestation has meant that less vegetation has led to less evapot = less water vapour/clouds
Temporal scale:
- the length of the dry season has been increasing by 1 mo since the mid-1970s
- The Mantaro valley presented a reduction of the precipitation amount (−5.6 mm/decade) over the last decade [5].
- Sao Paulo in 2014-15 experienced droughts, rainfall was half of what it was the previous worst year, showing just how quickly changes are occuring
Systems in Physical geography, data i need to know is:
- Amazon rainforest is an example of an open system at biome scale w River Eden at local scale
Factors driving change in magnitude of water stores
- energy in the form of latent heat is absorbed or released depending on process, im
Evaporation
- occurs from solar radiation hitting surface of water and causes water to change state from liquid to gas
- but the water vapour also amplifies earth’s greenhouse effect
Condensation
- if cooled sufficiently then water vapour get to temp where it become saturated, known as dew point (like dewy)
- water molecules need something to condense on (CONDENSATION NUCLEI) - CAUSE OF ALL PRECIP
Cyrospheric processes:
- 5 major glacial period in Earth’s history
- Ice used to cover large parts of Europe, N America and Siberia
- Interglacial periods caused by global ablation exceeds accumulation, over past 740,000 years have been eight of these
