巴朗阅读文本完整整理版7.docVIP

7.1 The Hydrologic Cycle The hydrologic cycle is the transfer of water from the oceans to the atmosphere to the land and back to the oceans. The processes involved include evaporation of water from the oceans; precipitation on land; evaporation from land; and runoff from streams, rivers, and subsurface groundwater.The hydrologic cycle is driven by solar energy, which evaporates water from oceans, freshwater bodies, soils, and vegetion.Of the total 1.3 billion km water on Earth, about 97% is in oceans, and about 2% is in glaciers and ice caps. The rest is in freshwater on land and in the atmosphere. Although it represents only a small fraction of the water on Earth, the water on land is important in moving chemicals, sculpturing landscape, weathering rocks, transporting sediments, and providing our water resources. The water in the atmosphere梠nly 0.001% of the total on Earth梒ycles quickly to produce rain and runoff for our water resources. Especially important from an environmental perspective is that rates of transfer on land are small relative to what抯 happening in the ocean. For example, most of the water that evaporates from the ocean falls again as precipitation into the ocean. On land;, most of the water that falls as precipitation comes from evaporation of water from land. This means that regional land-use changes, such as the building of large dams and reservoirs, can change the amount of water evaporated into the atmosphere and change the location and amount of precipitation on land梬ater we depend on to raise our crops and supply water for our urban environments. Furthermore, as we pave over large areas of land in cities, storm water runs off quicker and in greater volume, thereby increasing flood hazards. Bringing water into semi-arid cities by pumping groundwater or transporting water from distant mountains through aqueducts may increase evaporation, thereby increasing humidity and precipitation in a region. Approximately 60% of water that falls by prec