ES 100 Chapter 17-22: ES 100 Chapter 17-2: ES 100 Chapter 17-: ES 100 Notes 17+
Document Summary
Hydrologic cycle: water evaporates from moist surfaces, falls as rain or snow, passes through living organisms, and returns into the ocean, plants play a major role because they absorb groundwater and pump it into the atmosphere by transpiration. Fresh water: 2. 4% of all water: 87% is tied up in glaciers, ice caps and snowfields. Groundwater: water held in gravel deposits or rocks below the earth"s surface. Infiltration: precipitation that does not evaporate back into the air or run off over the surface percolates through the soil and into fractures and spaces of permeable rocks. Zone of aeration upper soil layers that hold both air and water: moisture for plant growth comes primarily from this layer. Zone of saturation: lower soil layers where all spaces are filled with water: water table: top layer of zone of saturation. This layer is not flat but it undulates according to the surface topography and subsurface structure.
