Cornell Notes: Water & Carbon Cycle
Cues / Prompts
- What is the global water cycle?
- What are the main water stores and flows?
- How does the carbon cycle operate?
- Key processes in the carbon cycle?
- Examples of human impact on these cycles?
- AO2: How do water & carbon cycles interact?
- AO3: Strengths and limitations of models?
Notes
Global Water Cycle: Continuous movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and transpiration. Closed system.
Major stores: Atmosphere, oceans (97%), cryosphere (ice), biosphere, groundwater. Flows: Precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, runoff, percolation.
Carbon Cycle: The movement of carbon between the atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, and lithosphere. Driven by processes like photosynthesis, respiration, combustion, decomposition.
Processes: Fast (biosphere-based) and slow (geological processes). Human impact via fossil fuels, deforestation, cement production.
Interactions: Plants absorb CO2 and release water vapour. Climate change caused by rising CO2 affects precipitation and ice melt — impacts water cycle.
AO3: Models like the carbon budget are useful to understand but limited due to complexity and scale. Data uncertainty can affect predictions.
Summary
I understand the main stores and flows in the water and carbon cycles, including human impacts and how the two systems interact. Need to revise named examples (e.g. Amazon, Arctic) and practice AO3 evaluation for exam essays.
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