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Earth life support systems (pt1) - Coggle Diagram
Earth life support systems (pt1)
Key words
Lithosphere
-- this is the layer of the earth that is made up of the crust and upper mantle.
Hydropshere
-- This is all the liquid water on the planet.
Cyrosphere
-- This is all of the ice on the planet (e.g glaiceirs and ice caps).
Biosphere
-- All of the living organisms on Earth.
Atmosphere
-- This is the gas/air to encomposes the planet.
Pedosphere
-- This is the soil.
Goldilocks zone
-- This is the area around a star where the planet is a the correct distence from the star to have liquid water.
Positive feedback
-- This is where a change in the system leads to a domino affect and the situation going further away from the orginal stand point.
Negertive feedback
-- This is where the system aims to keep things constant. One change in the system will lead to the system to change to counteract this change.
The importance and role of water
Oceans help to moderate global tempretures by abosrbing, storing and releasing heat overtime.
Clouds in the atmosphere contain water droplets and ice crystals that reflect 1/5th of solar radiation.
This helps moderate tempretures and refelect harmful waves.
Water vapour in the atmosphere helps keep the planet 15oc warmer then it should be.
Use of water
Humans
Humans use water in energy 'production' through the use of hydroelectical power sources and steam power.
Water is used for irrigation.
Water is used in all chemical reactions.
Humans are 60% water.
Humans use water for sweat (thermoregulation)
On average humans consume 3,500 litres of water per day (this includes the water used to make our food and clothing etc).
Flora
Plants need water for photosynthesis, respiriation and transipitation.
Water is needed for plants to retain their rigidity.
Movement of water through plants helps them regulate tempreture.
Fauna
Water is used in all chemical reactions.
All living things are made up of 60-95% water.
Needed for thermoregulation.
Climate
Regualtes global tempretures
Keeps the planet 15oc warmer.
Reflects 1/5th of solar radiation.
The water cycle as a system
Globally the water cycle is a closed system (only energy can enter and exit) as water very rarely enters (it can through comets) or leaves the planet.
At a local level (the drainage basin) the water cycle is an open system.
Water enters as precipitiation and glacial melt.
Water exits through evapotransipiration and flowing out of rivers into the sea.
Stores of water
Oceans are the largest store of water and they store 97% of water.
Polar ice and glaciers store 2%.
3/4 of fresh water is stored in these stores.
Lakes store 0.01%
The atmopshere stores just 0.001%.
0.7% of water is stored in underground aquifers.
1/5th of fresh water is stored in underground aquifers.
Less then 10 countries (it depends on precipitation) control 60% of global fresh water.
Distribution of water vapour
The equator has the highest levels of water vapour with areas near cold ocean currents and in the rain shadow of mountians having the lowest.
Key processes within the water cycle system
Advection
-- This is the horizontal movement of water through the atmosphere.
Condensation
-- This is the process of water vapour becoming liquid water.
Sublimination
-- This is the process of ice becoming water vapour without melting.
Precpitation
-- This is the falling of any form of water from the atmosphere to the earth's surface.
Perculation
-- This is the movement of water down through soil.
Groundwater
-- This is any water found under the soil in cracks and spaces.
Streamflow
-- This is the movement of water through streams, rivers and other channels.
Overland flow
-- This is the movement of excess water over the ground, but not in rivers.
Infiltration
-- The process which water moves from the surface into the soil.
Evaporation
-- This is the process of liquid water becoming water vapour.
Ablation
-- The loss of ice and snow through melting, evaportation and sublimation.
Ground water flow
-- The horizontal movement of water under ground.
Water scarcity
Impacts
People will die due to a lack of water and due to health problems caused by drinking polluted water (cholera).
Could lead to inflation as water is an important component to the economy.
Reducation in food production.
Conflict
Migration (climate refugees)
Areas may become uninhabitable
Could impact energy production
Water balance
Water balance
-- This compares the water enetering and exsiting a drainage basin.
The water balance changes throughout the year, durring summer drainage baisens are commonly at a water defecit (this means that water is exisiting quicker then it is being replaced) and durring winter it is at a water surplus (this means more water is entering the system then leaving).
Water surplus
-- This is when there is execess water in a system.
Water defiency
-- This is when there is not enough water in a system.
Recharge
-- This is where a system sees its water defecit reduce and eventually the system returns back to normal water storage levels.
Field capacity
-- This is the maximum amount of water the soil can hold before it becomes saturated.
Cloud formation
Causes of precipitation
Rain
Condensation nuclei
-- these are small particles of dust or pollen that water dropelts form on.
Rain drops grow in size as more water vapour enters the cloud, passes the dew point and condenses once particles are heavy enough to overide the upward force of rising heat (thermal currents) they fall.
Types of rainfall
Relief rainfall
When clouds reach a hill or mountain side they move up the slope and when they pass the dew point the rain will form and begin to fall, this creates a rain shadow behind the mountain/hill where rain rarely falls.
Convectional rainfall
The ground is heated during the day (commonly mid day) and this leads to very high levels of evapotranspiration leading to large cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds form large rain drops as the thermal currents are strong and when it rains it rains hard (with big water droplets).
Common around the tropics.
Depressional rainfall
When two masses of air meet they tend to remain distinct and when their is a warmer air body is will move up over the cooler air, bringing it to its dew point and leading to rainfall.
Drizzle
This is a lighter form of rainfall and is common when their is significantly less thermal currents.
Mist
When it is cold clouds will form at a very low level due to the dew point being very low and due to this the individual water droplets are to light to fall and they just float.
Mist is dispered either by dry air blowing in or the day time heating the ground and leading the water droplets to evaporate.
Hail
Rapid rising warm air leads to the formation of cumulonimbus clouds to form. Inside these clouds their is a high level of turbulance that cause water droplets to pass the freezing point in the clouds multiple times leading to them developing multiple layers of ice around them.
The up and down movement of hail formation releases latent heat and helps to create thunderstorms.
Lapse rates
Enviromental lapse rates (ELR)
This occurs where their is no warm air rising and on average the tempreture drops by 6.5oc per km climbed.
Dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR)
This is caused by adiabatic expansion which means that as the air expands it cools. This leads to tempretures to drop by 10oc per km climbed.
Saturated adiabatic lapse rate (SALR)
This is the rate at which saturated air cools as it rises and this causes the release of latent heat. Tempretures drop by 7oc per km climbed.
Stability
-- this is where air particles reach the same tempreture as the articles around them and stop rising.
Instability
-- this is where particles contuine to rise as the air particles are cooler then the atmosphere.