1. Water in the biosphere

2. Reading
Water in a Changing World

3. Water and food

4. Rainfall and plant growth
Sala et al. Ecology 1988
Rosenzweig Am. Nat.1968

6. Global Hydrologic Cycle (key components)
Energy from the sun produces evaporation (mostly from oceans)
Storage in a variety pools (e.g., oceans, atmosphere, soils, groundwater, lakes, rivers, glaciers)
Fluxes among pools (e.g., evaporation, sublimation, precipitation, runoff)

7. Water in the biosphere
97.6%

8. Major pools of FW: Glaciers & polar ice
2.08%

9. Major pools of FW: Groundwater
0.295%

10. Major pools of FW: Lakes
0.009%
Lake Baikal
Lake Malawi

11. Major pools of FW: Saline lakes
0.008%

12. Major pools of FW: Soils
0.005%
NASA
Soil moisture

13. Major pools of FW: Rivers
Yukon River
USGS %

14. Major pools of FW: atmosphere
0.0009%

15. Water in the biosphere
Fresh water is a resource of pronounced scarcity
from Wetzel 2001
=0.31% !!!!

17. Residence (renewal) time
Reflects the turnover rate of a pool (how long would it take to re-fill if you drained it?)
Residence time = volume / flow rate
Important implications for water withdrawal and pollutant dynamics

18. Water in the biosphere
from Wetzel 2001

19. If a truck carrying a load of benzene (an environmental contaminant) crashed and dumped its load into a) a ground water reservoir or b) a typical freshwater lake, in which system would benzene persist longer?
Why?

21. Mechanisms for spatial variation in precipitation
Large scale circulation patterns (e.g., Hadley cells)
Continental topography and interactions with prevailing atmospheric circulation patterns

22. Hadley cells

23. Topographic effects on precipitation

25. Global annual precipitation patterns

26. Where do people live globally?

27. Capturing river flow (runoff)
Postel et al. Science 1996

28. Water & Society FISH 101 Daniel Schindler Julian Olden
Daniel Schindler
Julian Olden
(Winter Quarter)