Hydrology and Water

What is Ecosystem Services?

direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well being

What are some ecological importance of water

habitat, fewer forest fires, controls habitat type, diversity, consumption, energy flow in landscape

Units for measuring water volume or flows

Gallons, cubic feet per second, inches, cm, m, ft, mi,km

Channel length measured in

mi, km

River depth measurement

ft, m

depth of rain, snow and evaporation

inch, cm

What is Atmospheric Moisture ?

the total amount of water vapor and liquid water present in the earth's air

lakes vs reservoirs

Reservoir is man made, lake is natural

Ice sheets vs snow packs

Snowpack is seasonal, ice sheet is longterm

What is brackish?

Salty water but less salty than ocean (like a mixture of fresh and salty)

Infiltration

precipitation to soil

What is recharge?

Soil moisture water to Groundwater

Biggest body of water?

Oceans (97.2%)

2nd biggest body of water?

Ice caps and glaciers

3rd biggest body of water?

Groundwater(near surface)

What is permafrost?

Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen — 32°F (0°C) or colder — for at least two years straight.

What is a watershed?

An area of land that drains to a specific outlet

how do you calculate Drainage Density

Total Channel length/ watershed area

What is a high density watershed

shorter hillslopes, less permeable soil, often steeper

What is a low density watershed?

longer hillslopes, more permeable soil, often flatter land

What is an Endorheic Basin?

Watersheds that drains to an internal location, not an ocean (1/5th of the worlds area)

Continental Dives are?

The boundary between watersheds that flow to different oceans

Meterological drought:

precipitation drought

agricultural drought

soil moisture

Hrodrological drought

Surface water drought

Socioeconomic drought

Population growth increase not enough water for everyone

How do you calculate change in storage for quantifying mass balance

all inflows- all outflows

Is Groundwater flow negligible?

Yes Gw_in = GW_out=0 (they have equilibrium conditions)

A watershed has surface inflow (TorF)

F