open, local hydrological cycles- is the area surrounding the river
INPUTS: precipitation – includes all the ways moisture comes out of the atmosphere. precipitation is mainly rain, but it also includes other types like snow, hail, dew and frost.
STORES:
- Interception: is when water lands on vegetation or other structures before it reaches the soil.
- Only temporary because water may evaporate – average of 30% rainfall event in leaves
- Vegetation storage: is water that’s been taken up by plants:
- Surface storage: Total volume of water held on the Earth’s surface in lakes, ponds and puddles.
- Soil storage: Amount of water stored in the soil
- Groundwater storage: is water stored in the ground, either in the soil or in rocks
- The water table is the top surface of the zone saturation – the zone of soil where all the pores in the soil or rock are full of water
- Channel storage: Water held in a river or stream channel
FLOWS:
- Infiltration: water soaking into the soil.
- Overland flow:/surface run off Water flowing over the land as a whole surface or in little channels
- Precipitation>infiltration
- Through fall: is water dripping from one leaf, or plant part, to another.
- Stem flow: water running down a plant stem or tree trunk
- Through flow: water moving slowly downhill through soil layer via pipes created by earthworms
- Percolation: The process by which water moves downward in the soil, toward the water table
- Groundwater flow: water flowing slowly below the water table through permeable rock
- Highly permeable can have a faster groundwater flow- followed by percolation
- Base flow: is the groundwater flow that feeds into rivers through riverbanks and river beds.
- Inter flow: Water flowing downhill through permeable rock above the water table
- Channel flow: the water flowing in the river or stream itself – river discharge.
OUTPUTS:
- Evaporation: water turning into water vapour
- Transpiration: is evaporation from within leaves – plants and trees take up water through their roots and transport it to their leaves where is evaporates into the atmosphere.
- PET: potential evapotranspiration – the amount of water that could be lost by evapotranspiration
- Actual evapotranspiration is what actually happens.
- Evapotranspiration: The combined amount of evaporation and transpiration
- River discharge
Water Balance: the balance between inputs and outputs
- Wet: P>ET = water surplus. Ground stores fill with water = more surface runoff and discharge- field capacity met
- Dry: P<ET= Ground stores are depleted, water is used but its not replaced by precipitation. At the end there’s a deficit of water in the ground. The ground stores recharged in the next wet season.
- Soil Water Budget: The balance of soil water.
Water Budget: P= O + E +/- S
P – precipitation
O – total runoff (streamflow)
E – Evapotranspiration
S – storage
- River regime: the variability in a rivers discharge throughout the cause of a year in response to precipitation, temperature, evaportranispiration and drainage basin characteristics
Almeria Drought Spain 2008– Excessive soil moisture deficit
Europe’s largest exporter of Strawberries
Soil care Project: cover crops, irrigation management
Soils are loamy with low organic matter and nutrients content and shallow depth