Water

THE WATER CYCLE

The Water Cycle (Name (Course (University (Date

The Water Cycle

Nutrients are elements essential for life on Earth . The most important of these nutrients are water , carbon (and oxygen , nitrogen , and phosphorous . These nutrients are recycled throughout the ecosystems to provide for the living organisms . Water takes up more than two-thirds of the Earth 's surface and makes up almost 70 percent of living matter (Pidwirny , 2006 . Such abundance of water on Earth makes it also the most valuable among the nutrients

Water cycle recycles water with the

use of processes such as evaporation , condensation and precipitation (Lio , 2008 . Evaporation occurs when liquid water is transformed to water vapor with the use of atmospheric temperature . Water vapor then rises up into the atmosphere Evaporation occurs not only on surface waters , but also on animals ' and plants ' body surfaces . Transpiration is evaporation that occurs in plants . Plants absorb water through their roots , leaves and branches and release water through specialized openings that regulate water in the plant body . The combination of evaporation and transpiration is called evapotranspiration (Pidwirny , 2006

Condensation is the opposite of evaporation . The water vapor in the atmosphere is turned into liquid water droplets . This process is also affected by low atmospheric temperature . With very low atmospheric temperature , water vapor condenses to form ice crystals . Accumulation of condensed water vapor forms clouds . Clouds that are heavy enough release these water droplets in the process of precipitation in the form of rain (Lio , 2008 . Ice crystals...