How does the removal of vegetation affect the water cycle?
Without vegetation, the terrestrial water cycle would be much slower because of smaller ET losses and lower precipitation rates. The amount of water that the ground absorbs also will depend on the land cover. Vegetation impacts the speed of water that will move across a surface.
How does clearing land affect the water cycle?
It increases erosion and the runoff of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants into coastal waters, causing damage to coral reefs and other marine ecosystems such as seagrass beds. Increased nutrients in rivers and streams can cause outbreaks of toxic algae.
How is the water cycle disrupted?
A number of human activities can impact on the water cycle: damming rivers for hydroelectricity, using water for farming, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.
What are the two driving forces behind the water cycle?
Gravity causes precipitation to fall from clouds and water to flow downward on the land through watersheds. Energy from the sun and the force of gravity drive the continual cycling of water among these reservoirs. As the water is heated, it changes state from a liquid to a gas. This process is called evaporation.
What are the disadvantages of land clearing?
It contributes to land degradation, salinity and declining water quality, damage to coastal marine zones, species extinctions and greenhouse emissions. Land clearing leads to habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, exposing what’s left to fire and invasive pests such as weeds.
What is the negative effects of land clearing?
Land clearing causes species death and habitat loss, but also exacerbates other threatening processes, particularly in fragmented landscapes. Land clearing reduces the resilience of threatened species populations to survive future perturbations such as climate change.
What role do plants and animals play in the water cycle?
Plants, especially trees, contribute to the water cycle via transpiration, where water evaporates from the surface of their leaves. Animals contribute to the water cycle via respiration, perspiration and urination.
How is water cycle important to plants and animals?
The hydrologic cycle is important because it is how water reaches plants, animals and us! Besides providing people, animals and plants with water, it also moves things like nutrients, pathogens and sediment in and out of aquatic ecosystems.
How does vegetation play a role in the water cycle?
Vegetation plays an important role in the water cycle by preventing soil erosion and increasing groundwater levels. In areas with thick vegetation cover, the foliage cover breaks the force of precipitation falling on the ground, which may otherwise cause erosion.
How does plant cover affect the flow of water?
As in forest areas, runoff travels between the soil and the litter and is constantly slowed down by unevenness in the soil and trapped by the holes left by rotted roots and mesofauna. Its flow is broken and its volume reduced in the sequences studied.
How does infiltration and seepage work in the water cycle?
It may all start as precipitation, but through infiltration and seepage, water soaks into the ground in vast amounts. Water in the ground keeps all plant life alive and serves peoples’ needs, too. Note: This section of the Water Science School discusses the Earth’s “natural” water cycle without human interference.
How does soil infiltration affect the water cycle?
Soils absorbing less water result in more runoff overland into streams. Soil saturation: Like a wet sponge, soil already saturated from previous rainfall can’t absorb much more thus more rainfall will become surface runoff. Land cover: Some land covers have a great impact on infiltration and rainfall runoff.