The Hydrosphere and Biosphere

Hydrosphere Include areas above, on, and below Earth’s surface containing water. Oceans Rivers Wetlands Polar Icecaps Soil Rock layers beneath surface Clouds

THE WATER CYCLE Continuous movement of water into air, onto land and back to water sources

EVAPORTAION Liquid is heated by sun and rises into atmosphere Mostly from oceans Also occurs in oceans, lakes, streams and soil

CONDENSATION Water vapor forms water droplets on dust particles Water droplets for clouds Droplets collide, stick together, and form larger, heavier droplets  RAIN

PRECIPITATION When those larger droplets fall from the clouds as rain Snow Sleet Hail

Earth’s Oceans All oceans are connected and called the World Ocean 70% of Earths surface Important role in regulating Earth’s environment

Pacific Ocean Largest Surface area: 165,640,000 km2 (645,996,000 miles2) Depth: 4,280 m Has deepest point: Challenger Deep East coast of Phillipines at bottom of Mariana Trench 11,033 m deep (6.6 mi) South and North pacific regions separated based on current flow north of south of equator

Atlantic Ocean Second largest Surface area: 81,630,000 km2 About half of Pacific Ocean Can be divided into North and South based on ocean current flow

Indian and Arctic Oceans Indian Ocean Third largest Arctic Ocean Much of surface covered by floating ice, “Pack Ice” Pack ice forms when wind or waves push toegether frozen sea water or “sea ice” into a large mass

Ocean Water Salts: Contain salts dissolved from rocks on land that have been carried to ocean by rivers and streams over millions of years Underwater volcanic eruptions also add salts Mostly sodium chloride

Salinity Concentration of all the dissolved salts in ocean Average: 3.5% by weight Lower in places with a lot of rain Higher in places with high evaporation Why?

Temperature Zones Sun warms surface Surface Zone Sun does not reach bottom Deep Zone Thermocline is between the surface and deep zone Waves move warm surface water around into thermocline

Global Temperature Regulator Ocean absorbs and stores half the energy from sun regulates Earth’s temperature Ocean absorbs and releases energy slower than land  Atmospheric changes are slower Without the world ocean, temperatures would be too extreme for life to exist

Local temperatures Local temperatures also regulated world ocean Ocean currents that circulate warm water cause land areas they flow past to have more moderate climate

Surface Ocean Currents Surface Current: streamlike movements of water at or near the surface if the oceans Cause: wind from global wind patterns Can be warm or cold, but do not easily mix

Surface Currents effect local climates Scilly Isles, England just as north as Canada but grow palm trees Other areas that northeast have long winters of frost and snow

Isles of Scilly

Deep Currents Flow very slowly along ocean floor Cause: water temperature difference Cold waters of the poles sink below warmer water and flows towards equator

Antarctic Bottom Water Cold water from coast of Antarctica which sinks to bottom of ocean and flows slowly northward Takes several hundred years to complete trip northward

Fresh Water Less than 3% of the Earth’s water Most is locked in icecaps and glaciers Rest is in lakes, rivers, wetlands, soil, atmosphere, and rock layers beneath the surface

River Systems Network of streams that drains into area of land Includes all the land drained by river Main river and tributaries Tributaries: Smaller streams that flow into larger ones

Groundwater Rain and melting snow sink into the ground and run off the land Fills human need for drinking water Supplies agricultural and industrial uses Less than 1% of all water on Earth

Aquifers Aquifer: a rock layer that stores and allows the flow of groundwater Recharge Zone: the surface of land where water enters an aquifer

The Biosphere Narrow layer around Earth’s surface in which life can exist (11km into ocean, 9km into atmosphere) Life needs: Liquid water Temperature between 10 °C and 40°C Source of energy Material that organisms need to survive must be continually cycled  GRAVITY allows planet to maintain atmosphere and cycle materials

Earth’s Energy Biosphere located near Earth’s surface because most of the sunlight is located near the surface Plants use sunlight to produce food  almost every organism gets its food from plants or algae- Can you think of any that does not? Algae floats on surface of ocean Primary producer: uses sun Algae grass

Energy Flow Energy is constantly added (from Sun), matter is not. Organism dies, decomposes and becomes nutrients for other organisms Closed system: energy enters environment, but matter does not Open system: both matter and energy are exchanged between a system and the surrounding environment; Matter added to Earth in the beginning