Hydrologic Cycle Essay

Water and the water cycle have essential roles in almost every environmental system (textbook). The hydrologic cycle, also known as the water cycle, summarizes how water in all different forms circulates through our environment (textbook). There are different parts of the hydrologic cycle that have an impact the climate. Some of these parts contribute certain effects of climate change like droughts, melting glaciers, decreasing river flows, and much more (textbook). This paper will examine the components of the water cycle and the impacts that it takes from climate change. The hydrologic cycle consists of different parts. The biggest and the main water supply on Earth is the ocean. The ocean holds 97% of all water on Earth (textbook).

From the ocean and other large bodies of water, water continues to move through the atmosphere by evaporation (textbook). Evaporation is not the only way that water can move from bodies of water to the atmosphere. Another way this can happen is through transpiration. Transpiration is known as “the release of water vapor by

Many of these impacts come from human activity. Research indicates that many of the hydrologic conditions can be attributed to human influences (A method). Many of these human influences include reservoir operations, ground water plumbing, and agricultural diversions (A method). Humans are constantly damming rivers to create reservoirs. This results in quantitatively increasing rates of evaporation (textbook). The human creation of creating reservoirs increases the quantity of precipitation. Creating dams and reservoirs are not a natural process. It is a manmade process that can have negative impacts on ecosystems and the hydrologic cycle. Research indicates that since the creation of reservoirs and dams are so common that this causes an unnatural development seem natural