{"id":2743,"date":"2021-05-12T06:45:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T06:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2023-10-17T11:18:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T11:18:23","slug":"water-cycle-is-life-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/water-cycle-is-life-cycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Water cycle is Life cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water cycle<\/strong>,<\/strong> also called\u00a0hydrologic cycle<\/strong>,<\/strong> cycle that involves the continuous circulation of\u00a0water\u00a0in the\u00a0Earth-atmosphere\u00a0system.<\/p>\n

Of the many processes involved in the water cycle, the most important are\u00a0:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. evaporation,<\/li>\n
  2. transpiration,<\/li>\n
  3. condensation,<\/li>\n
  4. precipitation<\/li>\n
  5. runoff.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Although the total amount of water within the cycle remains essentially constant, its distribution among the various processes is continually changing.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Evaporation, one of the major processes in the cycle, is the transfer of water from the surface of the Earth to the atmosphere. By evaporation, water in the\u00a0liquid\u00a0state is transferred to the\u00a0gaseous, or vapour, state. This transfer occurs when some molecules in a\u00a0water mass\u00a0have attained sufficient\u00a0kinetic energy\u00a0to eject themselves from the water surface. The main factors affecting evaporation are\u00a0temperature,\u00a0humidity,\u00a0wind\u00a0speed, and\u00a0solar radiation. The direct measurement of evaporation, though desirable, is difficult and possible only at point locations. The principal source of water vapour is the\u00a0oceans, but evaporation also occurs in\u00a0soils,\u00a0snow, and\u00a0ice. Evaporation from snow and ice, the direct conversion from\u00a0solid\u00a0to vapour, is known as sublimation.\u00a0Transpiration\u00a0is the evaporation of water through minute pores, or stomata, in the leaves of\u00a0plants. For practical purposes, transpiration and the evaporation from all water, soils, snow, ice, vegetation, and other surfaces are lumped together and called\u00a0evapotranspiration, or total evaporation.<\/p>\n

    Water vapour\u00a0is the primary form of atmospheric moisture. Although its storage in the atmosphere is comparatively small, water vapour is extremely important in forming the moisture supply for\u00a0dew,\u00a0frost,\u00a0fog,\u00a0clouds, and precipitation. Practically all water vapour in the atmosphere is confined to the\u00a0troposphere\u00a0(the region below 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 km] altitude).<\/p>\n

    Precipitation that falls to the Earth is distributed in four main ways: some is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation, some may be intercepted by vegetation and then evaporated from the surface of\u00a0leaves, some\u00a0percolates\u00a0into the\u00a0soil\u00a0by infiltration, and the remainder flows directly as surface\u00a0runoff\u00a0into the sea. Some of the infiltrated precipitation may later\u00a0percolate\u00a0into streams as\u00a0groundwater\u00a0runoff. Direct measurement of runoff is made by stream gauges and plotted against time on hydrographs.<\/p>\n

    Most groundwater is derived from precipitation that has\u00a0percolated\u00a0through the soil. Groundwater flow rates, compared with those of surface water, are very slow and variable, ranging from a few millimetres to a few metres a day. Groundwater movement is studied by tracer techniques and remote sensing.<\/p>\n

    Ice\u00a0also plays a role in the water cycle. Ice and snow on the Earth\u2019s surface occur in various forms such as frost,\u00a0sea ice, and\u00a0glacier\u00a0ice. When soil moisture freezes, ice also occurs beneath the Earth\u2019s surface, forming\u00a0permafrost\u00a0in\u00a0tundra climates. About 18,000 years ago glaciers and ice caps covered approximately one-third of the Earth\u2019s land surface. Today about 12 percent of the land surface remains covered by ice masses.<\/p>\n

    General nature of the cycle<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The present-day\u00a0water cycle<\/a>\u00a0at Earth\u2019s surface is made up of several parts. Some 496,000 cubic km (about 119,000 cubic miles) of\u00a0water\u00a0evaporates\u00a0from the land and\u00a0ocean\u00a0surface annually, remaining for about 10 days in the\u00a0atmosphere\u00a0before falling as\u00a0rain\u00a0or\u00a0snow. The amount of\u00a0solar radiation\u00a0necessary to evaporate this water is half of the total solar radiation received at Earth\u2019s surface. About one-third of the\u00a0precipitation\u00a0falling on land runs off to the oceans primarily in\u00a0rivers, while direct\u00a0groundwater\u00a0discharge to the oceans accounts for only about 0.6 percent of the total discharge. A small amount of precipitation is temporarily stored in the waters of rivers and\u00a0lakes. The remaining precipitation over land, 73,000 cubic km (17,500 cubic miles) per year, returns to the atmosphere by evaporation. Over the oceans, evaporation exceeds precipitation, and the net difference represents transport of water vapour over land, where it precipitates as rain or snow and returns to the oceans as river\u00a0runoff\u00a0and direct groundwater discharge.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The various\u00a0reservoirs\u00a0in the water cycle have different water\u00a0residence times. Residence time is defined as the amount of water in a reservoir divided by either the rate of addition of water to the reservoir or the rate of loss from it. The oceans have a water residence time of 3,000 to 3,230 years; this long residence time reflects the large amount of water in the oceans. In the atmosphere the residence time of water vapour relative to total evaporation is only about 10 days. Lakes, rivers,\u00a0ice, and groundwaters have residence times lying between these two extremes and are highly variable.<\/p>\n

    There is considerable variation in evaporation and precipitation over the globe. In order for precipitation to occur, there must be sufficient atmospheric water vapour and enough rising\u00a0air\u00a0to carry the vapour to an altitude where it can condense and precipitate. Precipitation and evaporation vary with latitude and their relation to the global\u00a0wind\u00a0belts. The\u00a0trade winds, for example, are initially cool, but they warm up as they blow toward the\u00a0Equator. These winds pick up moisture from the ocean, increasing ocean surface salinity and causing\u00a0seawater\u00a0at the surface to sink. When the trade winds reach the Equator, they rise, and the water vapour in them condenses and forms clouds. Net precipitation is high near the Equator and also in the belts of the prevailing westerlies, where there is frequent storm activity. Evaporation exceeds precipitation in the subtropics, where the air is stable, and near the poles, where the air is both stable and has a low water vapour content because of the cold. The\u00a0Greenland Ice Sheet\u00a0and the Antarctic Ice Sheet formed because the very low evaporation rates at the poles resulted in precipitation exceeding evaporation in these local regions.<\/p>\n

    \n

    <\/h3>\n

    Stop water from going into the drain,\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Make a collective effort & catch the rain!\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Vardhman Envirotech,<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    India\u2019s Passionate Rainwater Company<\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Water cycle, also called\u00a0hydrologic cycle, cycle that involves the continuous circulation of\u00a0water\u00a0in the\u00a0Earth-atmosphere\u00a0system. Of the many processes involved in the water cycle, the most important are\u00a0: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3652,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2743\/revisions\/3652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vardhmanenvirotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}