The Hydrologic (Water) Cycle

• Describe the processes that move water through the water cycle (solid earth, oceans, atmosphere, and living organisms), using energy from the sun

• Identify the different reservoirs (sources) of water on Earth.

What does biogeochemical mean?
Something that has components of biology (life), geology (earth), and chemistry (chemical substances).

What are cycles?

A series of change which comes back to the starting point and is repeated. The is no end.

Biogeochemical cycles are pathways by which chemical substances move throughout Earth’s systems.

IMPORTANT – We will talk about water moving through the cycle, but remember: MOST water (96.5%) is stored in the oceans at any given time.

When a liquid (water) turns into a gas at a temperature below the boiling point.

IMPORTANT: This is the main way water moves from oceans, lakes, ponds, into the atmosphere.

When plants release water into the atmosphere from their leaves.

Important but a much smaller amount of water enters the atmosphere this way

Notice, the water is evaporating from a body of water where transpiration is water is released directly from a plant

BOTH add water to the atmosphere

When a gas (water vapor) is transformed into a liquid – This forms clouds.

High in the atmosphere, the water vapor cools and condenses back into water droplets

Water that falls from clouds due to gravity, in the form of rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc. back down to Earth's surface.

Precipitation transports water back into the ocean and onto land.

The type of precipitation (rain, hail, sleet, snow) depends on temperature

When precipitation is soaked up by the soil.

Water then can travel deeper(due to gravity) to be stored as ground water (like our aquifer) or will move to a nearby body of water

Water that falls as precipitation on Earth’s surface and moves on the surface of Earth.

•Oceans

•Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams

•Ice sheets and glaciers

•Ground

•Atmosphere

•Living organisms

*We call these different locations where water is stored reservoirs.