Theory

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    Created by
    Mabel smith

    Cards (50)

    • What percentage of global water does the ocean store
      97%
    • Why is the water cycle a closed system
      No water is lost or formed and it remains constant
    • What is the biosphere 

      Space occupied by living organisms
    • What is the hydrosphere
      All the water on earths surface
    • What is the cryosphere
      Frozen parts of earths surface
    • What is the global distribution of water
      Not even, less than 10 countries possess 60% of water. America has the largest share
    • What is an aquifer
      An underground water source like a reservoir
    • Why is a river drainage basin an open system 

      Water can enter and leave into the sea
    • What are inputs into the river drainage system
      Precipitation
    • What is interception 

      When water is stopped from hitting the ground by plants
    • What is throughfall
      When water that was intercepted drops onto the floor
    • What is interception loss
      When intercepted water is evaporated
    • What is percolation
      Downward movement of water into rock
    • What is river discharge
      Volume of water passing a given point over a given time
    • what is a flashy hydrograph
      Lots of overland flow, short lag time makes the area liable to flooding.
    • What is a low flat hydrograph 

      Less likely to flood
    • What are the outputs from the water drainage cycle
      Evaporation, transpiration, run off
    • What is a water surplus
      When precipitation is greater than evaporation so soil is saturated
    • Why is the global carbon cycle a closed system
      No new carbon enters the system
    • What is the biggest store of carbon
      Earths crust
    • Why do tropical climates store more carbon
      High biomass store and high rates of decomposition
    • What is NPP
      net primary production - amount of carbon sequestered by plants per m per year
    • What are the fluxes of carbon into the atmosphere
      Respiration - soil and plants
      decomposition - release co2
      combustion - burning things releases co2
    • How does carbon enter the ocean
      Diffusion
    • What is downwelling
      When colder areas of the sea sink along with carbon
    • What is the biological pump of carbon
      When phytoplankton use carbon for photosynthesis
    • What is sequestration
      When remains of plants and animals become preserved and carbon is stored
    • What is the fast carbon cycle
      Plants respiring and constant movement in the ocean
    • What is the slow carbon cycle
      When carbon is in the rock and is eventually released via an eruption
    • How has urbanisation affected the water cycle
      less infiltration
      increased floodrisk
    • How has urbanisation affected the carbon cycle
      Less photosynthesis as there is removed vegetation
      production uses co2
    • How has farming impacted the water cycle
      More infiltration
      more saturated soils can mean increased flood risk
    • How has forestry impacted carbon cycle
      Carbon store
    • What is water extraction
      Process of taking water from a store temporarily or permanently
    • Where is the aral sea
      Landlocked sea in Central Asia
    • What two rivers feed into the Aral Sea
      Syr Darya basin and the Amu Darya basin
    • Why was water extracted from the Aral Sea in the 1930s
      Agricultural purposes
    • What happened to the Aral Sea after extraction
      Level fell by 20cm a year and in the 1970s it rose to 50cm a year.
    • What impacts did the decrease in Aral Sea have on the area
      Much less precipitation
      became a dry area and animals left , dust and pollutants were present
    • What is an aquifer
      A water bearing band of permeable rock
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