Wednesday Week One

...some water cycle and precipitation questions...

1. What is a biogeochemical cycle? What are the essential components of a biogeochemical cycle? What is an example of a biogeochemical cycle other than the water cycle?

2. What are the reservoirs of the water cycle? What is a "reservoir" in the context of a biogeochemical cycle? What are the relative sizes of the following reservoirs: ocean, groundwater, soil moisture, lakes, rivers, wetlands (swamps), atmospheric moisture, and deep water?

3. Why is it important that more water evaporates from the ocean than precipitates into the ocean? How does water get from the ocean to surface terrestrial water reservoirs? How does water get from the surface terrestrial water reservoirs back into the ocean?

4. What are the (approximate and relative) residences times for the different reservoirs in the water cycle? What is meant by "residence time"? Why is it important to simultaneously consider reservoir size and residence time?

5. What is condensation? What change(s) are required in order for condensation to occur? Why does precipitation require both condensation and coalescence?

6. What are the three factors that determine the amount* of rain that falls in a particular location on the globe (*in this case, "amount" is measured by the average annual cumulative rainfall)? What is the "orographic effect"? Why is altitude important? Why is latitude important? Why is proximity to the ocean and wind direction important?

7. Can you describe the annual and seasonal rainfall patterns for an area if I provide information about the location such as topography, and wind direction? Conversely, can you describe the location, physiographic characteristics, and wind direction(s) of a place if I provide the proper information about the precipitation?

8. Why is the wettest (as determined by average annual accumulation of precipitation) place on Earth so wet? Why is the driest (as determined by average annual accumulation of precipitation) place on Earth so dry?

Slides from today are on Sakai. Your reading for Friday is the IPCC AR5 SPM (2014) (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change Assessment Report 5 Summary for Policy Makers). You will find it as AR5SummaryGEOL150.pdf in the Resources--> Reading folder in Sakai. You are certainly welcome to read the entire 33-page document but you are only responsible for the material that is highlighted in the red boxes. Also, don;'t forget that we will have a quiz first thing on Friday when we meet.