THE WATER CYCLE

Water is essential to life on Earth. In its three phases (solid, liquid, and gas), water ties together the major parts of the Earth’s climate system - air, clouds, the ocean, lakes, vegetation, snowpack, and glaciers. 

 Water has been around for billions of years. It gets recycled over and over again.  

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Water cycle is the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth's oceans,  atmosphere, and land, involving precipitation as rain and snow, drainage in streams and rivers, and return to  the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.

 

 The water cycle is made up of five process:

• Transpiration
• Evaporation
• Condensation
• Precipitation
• Accumulation 

Lets see how these processes work water from billions of years ago moving around the earth.

The evaporation of water from plants 

Plants need water to survived and they obtain it from the soil, but plants can also sweat water out through their leaves during dry spells or really sunny days; this is called transpiration.

 

Do plants really sweat? 

Transpiration also cools and enables the flow of mineral nutrients from the roots. the amount of water lost from the plants depend on its size, along with  the surrounding light intensity, temperature, humidity, wind speed and soil water supply.

 

• Plants release water to supply photosynthesis, to brings minerals up from roots.
• Plants like me release water to supply photosynthesis, bring minerals up from the roots, and cool ourselves off. 

EVAPORATION

The conversion of water from a liquid to a gas. 

• Evaporation is a critical component of a water cycle, which is responsible for clouds and rain. 
•  Solar energy drives evaporation of water from oceans, lakes, moisture in the soil and other sources of water.

 

 CONDENSATION

 

    The transformation of water vapor back into liquid water by cooling      

•  Condensation is changing water from a gaseous state back to a liquid state in the form of clouds.
• The water seen on the outside of a glass on a hot day is condensation.

 

PRECIPITATION

 

 Rain, hail, or snow falling from the clouds due to the condensation of water.

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• Precipitation is the major component of weather and of the water cycle. 
• Precipitation is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet.

 

ACCUMULATION

 

The collection of precipitation into rivers, lakes, and oceans. 

 

The ocean is an integral part of the water cycle and in connected to all of the earth. Water reservoirs via evaporation and precipitation process.