Question
In Week one use the ebooks and the selected readings available to you in this class to answer the following question
?Describe the Hydrologic and Carbon Cycles. Explain their importance and discuss any environmental threats these cycles face today. How might those threats affect people globally? What might be some possible solutions?
Substantive Participation Points: To earn your points, your messages must meet the eight substantive requirements detailed in the Instructor Policies document
Dahlman, C. T., & Renwick, W. H. (2014). Welcome to Geography: People, Places, & Environment (6th ed.). : Pearson Education Company.
answer
HYDROLOGICAL AND CARBON CYCLES
Introduction
According to Dahlman, C. T., & Renwick, W. H. (2014), the hydrological cycle or the water cycle is normally referred to as a recurring resultant of divergent forms of changes of water from its physical state in the nature on a particular area of the earth. The hydrological cycle extends through the following four parts of the Earth system – biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. The terrestial water cycle is of interest as the mechanism of formation of water resource on a particular area of the land. In carbon cycle, it must be understood that carbon is the building block of life. It is so because carbon among the other elements has the best capacity to join with other elements and form compounds.
Describe the Hydrologic and Carbon Cycles.
The process of hydrologic cycle include: precipitation or rain, formation of snow cover, there is snow metamorphosis and the formation of ice, there is interception of precipitation by the vegetation cover and the storage in land surface depressions, infiltration of water into soil, evaporation and transpiration, recharge of groundwater and ground flow, river runoff generation, and movement of water in river channel systems. The global hydrological cycle is formed by water exchange between the atmospheres, land, oceans, and its key components are precipitation on land and oceans, evaporation from land and oceans, and runoff from land to oceans (Dahlman, C. T., & Renwick, W. H. 2014).
Carbon cycle is the process in which carbon in the atmosphere is used in photosynthesis to create new plant material. The carbon is transferred from the atmosphere to plants. Over a period of time, the plants die and decay. They are then harvested by humans or burned in the wildfires or for energy. There is recycling of carbon among various pools in the ecosystems and eventually they are released back to the atmosphere.
Importance and Environmental threats of the cycles
The carbon cycles can be used to produce energy such as nuclear power and wind power while hydrologic cycle can be used to produce water power. Their environmental threats include global warming, pollution of water and resources, and disruption of climate (Dahlman, C. T., & Renwick, W. H. 2014). The global warming can results to damaging the biosphere. The threats of floods and droughts can cause people to migrate to other places. The possible solutions of the threats maybe to increase the earth cover by planting more trees and to recycle waste products.
Conclusion
The paper describes the hydrological and carbon cycles in detailed. It also highlights the significance and environmental threats. It explains how the threats affect people globally and the solutions to curb those threats. Global warming and disruption of climate are seen as the major threats of the cycles
References
Dahlman, C. T., & Renwick, W. H. (2014). Welcome to Geography: People, Places, & Environment (6th ed.). : Pearson Education Company.
Application of Geography in environment sustainability-Geo 2015
