Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Introduction to Hydrosphere
Hey all.Today we had lesson on Hydrosphere at the beautiful garden.
If all of you recalled, we already touched on hydrosphere last time - the basic water cycle. Water evaporates from water bodies, rises, expands and cools (adibetic cooling). Then the cloud gets heavy and water droplets fall from the sky as raindrops.
Water is ESSENTIAL for life. Some micro-organism can survive without atmosphere but NOT water. During seasons change, life forms are also affected due to the water available. For example, during winter and autumn , plants start to wilt due to the scarcity of water. During spring and summer, life flourish. Not just seasons, the place also affects the amount of water available. For example, at the tropical countries where it is wet and warm, forests are very densed. At deserts, there are very little plants due to the scarcity of water.
To understand the drainage system- imagine yourself as a cute little water droplet. What will happen to you?
- Fall onto the soil, seep into the soil and join the ground water (infiltration). Infiltration capacity is defined as the amount of water the soil can hold.
- Flow laterally downslope (throughflow)
- Flow laterally horizontally (baseflow)
- Get intercepted by trees and leaves (interception). Tree by itself acts like an inverted drainage system.
Changing the ground from soil to concrete can change the entire system of drainage. This changes the amount of groundwater available and the amount of water available in soil thus affecting the availability of water for plants and affecting the whole bio system.
Now, isn't that interesting and amazing? Thank you!
JH.