How does climate change affect the water cycle?

Climate change is one of the biggest factors and problems facing the modern world. From carbon emissions to global warming, to the melting of ice sheets, climate change affects the earth in many ways, and there are many side effects, which are far more profound than we thought. One of these side effects is the impact on the water cycle.

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What is the water cycle?

The water cycle is the constant movement of all the water on the earth. The amount of water will never change, but will circulate in various regions and be transported to all parts of the world through weather patterns and running water. From rain to the ocean, to rivers, groundwater and glaciers, everything is part of the earth's water cycle.

The water cycle is usually divided into several stages or processes, and all water will eventually go through these stages or processes. Including evaporation, condensation and precipitation, as well as interception, infiltration, infiltration, transpiration, runoff and accumulation. These stages * * * isomorphic become a cycle on which human beings, plants and animals depend for survival and the earth prospers.

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Impact of Climate Change on Water Cycle

It is found that climate change has an increasing impact on the earth's water cycle. Carbon emissions, agriculture and industry have led to an overall increase in the average temperature of the earth. This average growth has some direct effects on the water cycle, especially in evaporation and precipitation, as well as water flows around the world.

What is the impact of climate change on the water cycle?

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evaporate

Evaporation is the process by which water (usually on the ground or in water bodies on the earth's surface) becomes steam. This process requires heat to turn liquid water into gas and rise to the atmosphere. With the increase of global average temperature, evaporation is also increasing. Because evaporation and precipitation are closely related, the increase of evaporation directly leads to a large amount of precipitation around the world.

How it works: If you think of a puddle that dries in the sun, the water in the puddle will be evaporated by the heat of the sun. So the puddle will dry up, and the water in it will turn into water vapor in the air. The hotter the weather, the faster this process will happen. On a larger scale, the same thing is happening in more important waters of the world. Due to global warming, the temperature rises, while the reduction of ozone leads to the increase of solar heat, which will affect lakes, ponds and oceans and cause water to evaporate at a faster rate.

Due to the drought caused by high temperature, a historic low water level was discovered in Lake Mead, Nevada, USA.

Due to the rising temperature caused by climate change, many lakes that have existed for many years are drying up, or at least decreasing. For example, Lake Bobo in Bolivia is the second largest lake in the country. However, in 20 15, due to the extreme drought in this area, the lake completely dried up. Similarly, although Lake Mead is an artificial lake originating from the Colorado River, its water level dropped by 37 meters from 2000 to 20 15, mainly due to drought and rising regional temperature.

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deposit

Because they are so closely linked in the water cycle, the accelerated evaporation caused by drought and climate change leads to an increase in precipitation. Not only does water evaporate faster, but when the atmosphere warms, it can retain more water, thus producing more rain.

When the water on the earth's surface turns into gas and steam in the atmosphere, it will rise and form clouds. As the clouds gather, more and more water vapor gathers together. Once the water vapor in the cloud becomes too heavy-that is, the proportion of water vapor in gas or atmosphere is too high-water begins to form liquid again and falls from the cloud in the form of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.). ) In a process called condensation.

This seems to offset the increased evaporation, but it doesn't actually-at least not directly. Due to the air flow and weather patterns on the earth, evaporated water rarely falls in the same place. It gathers together to form clouds, which are blown across plains or mountains before landing again.

Because of this process, the weather patterns in the world have changed greatly in the past few years. Although some areas have experienced extreme drought, floods in other areas have increased. Essentially, this is due to the rapid evaporation rate. Because water evaporates quickly, it will condense and precipitate faster. This will lead to extreme rainstorms and flash floods.

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Floods caused by climate change

Due to climate change and its impact on the water cycle, four main types of floods are increasing. The first is flash floods, and the amount of water in any particular area is too large.

The second is the urban flood, when the sudden rainstorm flooded the urban drainage system. Rainwater drains can only absorb a certain amount of rain at a time, and heavy rain sometimes overflows these systems, leading to floods in major cities. This happened in Detroit 20 14. As the city streets, subway systems or main park roads are flooded, this situation occurs in various States and cities around the world.

The third category is similar to the fourth category, both of which are river bank floods and coastal floods. In both cases, the increased precipitation flooded the banks of water bodies, and rivers, lakes or oceans spilled into the surrounding areas, causing large-scale floods. Toronto, Canada, in the spring of 20 17, the increase of precipitation led to the flooding of Lake Ontario. Towns along the lakeshore-including Toronto and Toronto Island-were flooded, leaving families in trouble and causing great damage to roads and houses.

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extreme weather

This kind of flood belongs to the category of extreme weather and is one of the biggest side effects of climate change. Although it used to refer only to the old term "global warming", scientists now realize that this warming will affect all aspects of climate and weather, and lead to a sharp increase in the number of dangerous extreme weather events around the world.

The intensity of tropical storms, hurricanes and monsoons has increased significantly recently. Hurricane is the most harmful of all natural disasters, and it can be extremely destructive. Although the average number of hurricanes remains the same, research shows that the intensity of storms is increasing. Category 4 and 5 storms have increased in this area. We saw the same storm in hurricane-prone areas, but the intensity increased, which may be caused by the increase of precipitation in the atmosphere and the increase of ocean temperature, because warm water is the main factor to form hurricanes.

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sea level rise

In addition to all these changes, sea water temperature is also rising, and global temperature rise means that glaciers and polar ice sheets have been shrinking and melting. This leads to two main problems.

First of all, the melting of ice leads to the loss of glacier landscape and polar animal habitat. In addition, with the melting of ice, it will produce more open waters, reflecting the sun more strongly than ice, further accelerating this process.

The second major problem is that as the ice melts, it replaces the surrounding water, causing the ocean and sea level to rise. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle, and this change in turn will disturb the careful balance of this cycle.

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Lasting influence

Generally speaking, the water cycle is very important to life on earth, and slight climate change has a great influence on it. As climate change continues, it actually seems to increase every year, and the global temperature continues to rise. This affects the global water cycle in various ways, from large-scale drought to flash floods to more destructive weather and storms.

As the temperature rises and the water cycle accelerates, the weather becomes more and more unpredictable and the conditions become more and more extreme. Drought will not be balanced, but will get worse, while other areas will be flooded and storms may cause more and more damage. If it is not changed, the water cycle that maintains all life on the earth will face increasing risks. Therefore, changes must be made to correct these climate problems, so as to restore the natural balance of the water cycle and the entire earth ecosystem.

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