HYDROLOGIC CYCLE

- The hydrologic cycle also known as the water cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.

- Since the water is truly a “cycle,” there is no beginning or end. Water can change states among liquid, vapor and ice at various places in the water cycle.

- Most of the earth’s water is stored in the oceans, but solar energy continually evaporate this water, and winds distribute water vapor around the globe

- Water that condenses over land surfaces, in the form of rain, snow, or fog, supports all terrestrial (land-based) ecosystem

- Living organism emit the moisture they have consumed through respiration and perspiration.

- Eventually this moisture reenters the atmosphere or enters lakes and streams, from which it ultimately returns to the ocean again

- As it moves through living things and through the atmosphere, water is responsible for metabolic processes within cells, for maintaining the flows of key nutrients through ecosystems, and for global-scale distribution of heat and energy.