Chapter Review Assess your understanding of concepts related to this chapter by answering the questions below. Click the question to reveal the correct answer.
The hydrologic cycle or water cycle is the pathway through which water moves in the Earth system. It is a cycle of energy as well as moisture.
Soil water is held in the soil moisture zone that lies in the zone of aeration. Groundwater is held in the zone of saturation. Soil water is directly available for plants to use, ground water is not.
Plants affect the water cycle though by extracting water from the soil moisture zone and passing it to the atmosphere. Water moves as through fall through plant canopy.
The field capacity is the maximum amount of water held in the soil after it has bee drained by gravity. Field capacity is higher in fine textured soils because there is more pore space per unit volume than for coarse textured soils.
Permeability is the ability for water to move through earth material. The connectivity of pore spaces largely controls permeability. Large, well-connected pore space results in greater permeability. Thus, coarse soils are more permeable than fine textured soils.
Finer textured soils hold more water and thus have more available water than coarse textured soils.
An aquifer is a body of earth material able to hold and transmit groundwater in economical amounts. An aquiclude is far less permeable and cannot transmit water through it.
Urbanization can decrease the lag time between maximum precipitation and runoff, and increase and steepen the recessional limb of a hydrograph.
Evapotranspiration is the amount of water evaporated and transpired under an unlimited supply of water. Fundamentally it is determined by energy input to the environment. Evapotranspiration can be thought of as "water need”.
A soil water deficit occurs when potential evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation and the soil water storage is zero (dry soil).
A soil water surplus occurs when precipitation exceeds potential evapotranspiration and the soil is at field capacity.
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