The Hydrological Cycle And Water Budget Equation

Once upon a time, there was a god cloud named Rainfall. He was known for giving birth to thousands of raindrops everyday. He was the leader of the world called “The Water Cycle”. The other god called run-off was a big water park and he was known for splitting up families. His two main slides were called Ocean and Lake. There was one raindrop that got separated from his family, he went over to the lake side, when all of his family went over to the ocean side. Poor Raindrop was so scared being by himself in a big lake with a lot of other rain being separated from their families. He found himself going farther down in the lake, until he reached the bottom.

The change in season’s results in differences in the flow, size and overall function of the lake, stream, or river and therefore the constant monitoring of these systems are beneficial to determine ecosystem characteristics and patterns (Lenat, 1988).

It is undeniable that climate change is drastically changing our current landscapes throughout the world. There are many individuals who consider climate change to be a natural and organic progression, but many studies indicate that due to excess greenhouse gas emissions, humans are accelerating global warming at an alarming rate. It’s convenient to continuously dismiss the studies and evidence that suggest climate change is real and it could have serious consequences, but when these drastic changes are taking place in our own backyard, it becomes a harsh reality. There is longstanding research, which indicates that the Colorado River has been in a drought since the early 2000’s and researchers allege that due to rising temperatures, the

The watershed model is used to develop projections of peak stream flows and water surface (flood)

Land transformation as a result of anthropogenic effects continues to be one of the biggest threats to the ecological integrity of headwater streams today. Land transformation induced by human alterations to the landscape, have been shown to have negative impacts on habitat, water quality, and the biota of natural waterways (Allan 2004). For instance, in 2004 Gage found that macro invertebrates were negatively impacted by anthropogenic mediated land use, which often lead to declines and even eliminations of sensitive taxa from the stream (Gage et. al. 2004). Urbanization is considered to be one of the driving forces behind land transformation and is mainly responsible for increases in impervious surface area. Increases in impervious surface area have led to the rapid conveyance of storm waters, resulting in the increased presence of oils, metals, and road salts within surface waters (Moore et. al. 2005). The increased presence of these solutes are leading to variations in ionic concentrations that deviate from natural concentrations, thus altering the conductivity within the water systems.

Hypothesis: Due to the recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology says increased flow variability has crucial negative effects on salmon populations of multiple climate factors considered and the salmon quality over the recent years showing a decline the prediction is the findings will include that there is indeed a decline in riverine ecosystem that are due to human as well as natural causes.

The fragility of river biome ecosystems are increasing more and more with each passing year. Development of man-made, hydraulic obstructions and pollution are two of the biggest factors putting the Missouri River at risk. Less than 70% of the planet’s longest 177 rivers are without man-made structures, such as dams. The number will only continue to increase as global populations grow and untapped rivers are targeted. Structures built on rivers negatively affect plants, animals, and especially humans, as the majority of water used by people comes from rivers. The effects of interfering with the natural flow of rivers can already be seen in the straining of the Colorado, Indus, and Yellow rivers, as they have begun to dry before reaching the sea. It is only time before the Mississippi River, which is a continuation of the Missouri River, is affected as such. The aforementioned demonstrates the expanding environmental harms rivers are facing. Backing this up, scientists have shown that disrupting a river’s natural flow patterns incredibly affects its wellbeing. For

The average yield of total nitrogen between the two rivers differ. The Red River has a slightly higher nitrogen yield in the early data set (1992-1994) than the Sweetwater River (Figure 2A). Whereas, nitrogen yield in the Red River is significantly lower than the Sweetwater in 2005-2007 (Figure 2A). Comparing the two datasets corresponding to years, the Red River showed significant decrease in the average yield of nitrogen (Figure 2A). However, the Sweetwater nitrogen yield has dramatically increased since the earlier data collection (Figure 2A).

The RPM states that primary production and direct organic inputs from the riparian zone are the main sources of carbon in large rivers with constricted channels (Thorp and Delong, 1994). The RCC hypothesis describes a transition of food webs from mainly allochthonous terrestrial-based in headwater streams to autochthonous algal-based in larger rivers (Vannote et al., 1980). In this concept, rivers are longitudinally linked systems hence upstream ecosystem-level processes strongly influence those downstream (Sedell et al., 1989). The FPC states that periodic inundations are the driving force in the river-floodplain ecosystems responsible for the existence, productivity, and biota interactions (Junk et al., 1989), as organic carbon subsidies from terrestrial ecosystems are an important carbon source for aquatic food webs (Wetzel,

Increasing temperatures are an immediate threat to the earth and its many diverse ecosystems. Our group chose to take an in depth look at the effects of climate change on freshwater fish species, specifically on the rising air and freshwater temperatures and how they affect a cold water dwelling fish species such as the trout. We will explore how the distribution of trout has changed over time with rising temperatures, how fires due to climate change affect trout populations, and lastly what the economic impacts of increased water temperatures will be on fisheries.

This paper and pencil assessment lines up with my classroom cohesively. This assessment was constructed for a 3rd grade suburb classroom. My classroom will be a very hands-on classroom, and my student would have had plenty of time to learn about the water cycle, draw diagrams, discuss, and do plenty of experiments. The paper and pencil assessment will take place after we have finished the water cycle unit in science.

In class, the other day, we went through the water cycle as many forms such as animals, clouds, and mountains. The water cycle has precipitation(When it rains), transpiration(When plants give off water vapor), and condensation(When liquid water becomes gas). The Water Cycle was different from the activity that involved animals and objects. Our activity involved the objects that the water cycle happen and was not direct what it came from. Also they are the same because they are both related towards the Water Cycle. Some evidence of the water molecule were that it was drunk by an animal and then urinated by that animal. Other evidence is that transpiration of the plants then condensing into water vapor to go to the clouds. Also precipitation

Because streams play important roles in ecosystems and also provide drinking water for humans, this experiment was performed to determine if water velocity affects the health of a stream. For our purposes, water heath was determined by concentrations of dissolved oxygen. We predicted that areas of higher water velocity would have a lower chlorophyll a concentration and higher dissolved oxygen concentration. We collected six samples of water from Wild Basin Preserve in Austin, TX, three from areas of still water and three from areas of running water. We measured the dissolved oxygen concentrations of each sample using an YSI 550A Dissolved Oxygen Instrument and measured the chlorophyll a concentrations of each sample using a DU 800

The hydrologic cycle, also known as the water cycle, is a continuous rotation of water changing states through the Earth, ocean and atmosphere in a circulating system (Watts & Forbes, 2011; US Department of Commerce, n.d; National Geographic Society, 2013). The water cycle alters throughout different locations due to weather patterns and climate around the world (Watts & Forbes, 2011). The major processes that make up the hydrologic cycle are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and runoff, with many further processes as seen in Appendix 1.1 and simplified in Appendix 1.2.

Water is the lifeblood of every living creature on earth. Approximately 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered with water. Thought the wonders of nature, water can take on many different forms, form the water we drink, to the ice we use to chill a glass of lemonade, to the water vapor used to steam clean equipment equipment. It is easy to understand the significance water plays in our lives, but it may be much more difficult ot understand the water that exists below the earth's surface, called groundwater.