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The effects of climate change on the water cycle have important negative effects on the availability of freshwater resources, as well as other water reservoirs such as oceans, ice sheets, the atmosphere and soil moisture. The water cycle is essential to life on Earth and plays a large role in the global climate system and ocean circulation.
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Water cycle. The water cycle (known scientifically as the hydrologic cycle) is the continuous exchange of water within the hydrosphere, between the atmosphere, soil water, surface water, groundwater, and plants. Water moves perpetually through each of these regions in the water cycle consisting of the following transfer processes:
Rain falling over a drainage basin in Scotland.Understanding the cycling of water into, through, and out of catchments is a key element of hydrology. Hydrology (from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) 'water' and -λογία () 'study of') is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and ...
As a result, Earth's atmosphere has a distinctly different composition from that of other planets and allowed for life to evolve on Earth. Human activity has had an impact on the water cycle. Infrastructure, like dams, have a clear, direct impact on the water cycle by blocking and redirecting water pathways.
The ocean contains 97% of Earth's water and is the primary component of Earth's hydrosphere and is thereby essential to life on Earth. The ocean influences climate and weather patterns, the carbon cycle, and the water cycle by acting as a huge heat reservoir. (Full article...) Waves in Pacifica, California. A sea is a large body of salt water.
Earth's_Water_Cycle.ogv (Ogg multiplexed audio/video file, Theora/Vorbis, length 5 min 53 s, 640 × 360 pixels, 1.62 Mbps overall, file size: 67.97 MB) This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons . Information from its description page there is shown below.
Hydrometeorology – the study of the transfer of water and energy between land and water body surfaces and the lower atmosphere; Isotope hydrology – the study of the isotopic signatures of water; Surface hydrology – the study of hydrologic processes that operate at or near the Earth's surface