GE2103 Our planet: An Earth System Science

Perspective

Luo Xiangzhong (Remi)

xzluo.remi@nus.edu.sg
Time Table
Week Date Lectures Tutorials Quiz

Hydrosphere - The Blue Planet: water, water Feb 28- Mar 05: Soil
7 Mar 01
everywhere?
Cryosphere - Frozen Earth: the changing
8 Mar 08
Cryosphere

Atmosphere - Earth’s gaseous skin: the March 14-18: The changes

9 Mar 15 atmosphere, circulations and weather & climate in global water cycle
systems. (Problem solving 10%)

10 Mar 22 Biosphere - Living Earth QUIZ II 15%

March 14-18: The breath of

11 Mar 29 Anthroposphere - humans and resources. the earth (Problem solving
10%)

Sustainable Earth - impacts, planetary boundaries

12 Apr 5
and safe operating space

Apr 11-15: Climate change

13 Apr 12 Wrap up and summary QUIZ III 30%
in Southeast Asia
 Lecture 7 The hydrosphere
water covers 70% of
the planet's surface

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-and-where-is-the-hydrosphere.html
The importance of water
• Greenhouse effect
Account for 95% of the greenhouse gases, contribute to 60% of greenhouse warming effect to make earth
habitable (though not a key driver for climate change)
• Landscape
Erosion and deposition of streams and glacial
in leaves
• Biogeochemical processes
A key component of terrestrial life forms (60% of human body mass is water); Nutrient transport (solvent);
Energy transport (latent heat)
 The hydrosphere
• Definition: the hydrosphere is the total amount of water
on Earth. The hydrosphere includes water that is on the
surface of the planet, underground, and in the air.

• Where are the water on earth?

• Reservoirs (storages): the reservoirs are the storage tanks,
where water may be held for varying lengths of time.
Different types and sizes of reservoirs.
• Pathways (fluxes): the means by which water moves
between reservoirs.

• Hydrological cycle: describes the fluxes of water between

the various reservoirs of the hydrosphere
 Singapore uses: reservoirs,
Global water balance oceans/seas, rivers (johor
river), biospheric (NeWater)
• Unit: 1000 km3/yr.
• Box – reservoirs
• Arrow - pathways

• Closed system
• Major pattern of the cycle:
• Evaporation > Precipitation on ocean
• Evaporation < Precipitation on land
• Balance of the budget - every year, the
atmosphere transports 9% of ocean
evaporation to land, and the water is
returned via surface streams and as
groundwater.

• Residence time: the larger the storage,

the longer the residence time.

Oki et al. 2006, Science

Residence time
Residence time: the amount of water in a
reservoir divided by either the rate of water
fluxes in/out of the reservoir

Ocean residence time = 1338000/436.5

=~3000 years

The oceans have a water residence time of

3,000 years; this long residence time reflects
the large amount of water in the oceans.

In the atmosphere the residence time of

3000 years
water is only about 10 days.

Lakes, rivers, ice, and groundwaters have

residence times lying between these two
extremes and are highly variable.

ie in 10 years, all the water in the lakes will be

replaced by water from another source
Ocean – ocean salinity
1. About 3.5 percent of seawater, by weight, consists of
dissolved salt. The major type of salt is NaCl (sodium and
chlorine).

2. Salinity is the measure of seas’ saltiness, unit is parts

per mil
per thousand
(‰). Global seawater salinity 33 – 37 per mil.

3. Unevenly distributed - The highest salinity has been

observed in enclosed seas like the Red Sea, the Persian
Gulf, or on oceans where evaporation is much stronger
than precipitation.

4. Controls on Salinity:
a. evaporation, remains fresh water and leaves
remaining water saltier. (Closed seas)
b. precipitation, dilute the seawater. (Equator)
c. discharge of fresh water from rivers. (East Asia)
d. freezing of sea ice – when seawater freezes, salts
are excluded from the ice. (Northern Atlantic)
Ocean – ocean temperature
1. Ocean is heated by solar radiation, incoming
energy from the sun. hotter in the tropics

2. Since the Earth is round, the angle of the surface

relative to the incoming radiation differs with
latitude.
At low latitudes, direct overhead sunlight
received all year warms surface waters.
At high latitudes, ocean waters receive less
sunlight – the poles receive only 40 percent of
the heat that the equator does.

3. These variations in solar energy mean that the

same amt of energy
ocean surface can vary in temperature from a warm distributed over larger area?
30°C in the tropics to a very cold -2°C near the
poles. In some areas, it fluctuates depending on the
season (and thus the amount of sunlight received).

4. Heat capacity -> smaller temperature gradient

than on land.
Ocean – Vertical stratification
1. Surface zone
Extend to 100 - 500 meters, relatively warm water and low
salinity, therefore less dense.
Also known as mixed zone, actively interact with atmospheric
circulations – winds.

2. Pycnocline/Thermocline/Halocline zones
Ocean water properties experience significant changes with
depth. Each zone names after one type of property.

3. Deep zone
Contains about 80% of ocean water.
Featured by cold, high salinity and dense water. More still,
less likely to interact with the atmosphere
Ocean – Surface ocean current
Why would surface ocean in motion?
a. Radiation from the Sun provides heat energy to the
atmosphere
b. Nonuniform heating generates winds (different parts
of ocean, and difference between land and ocean)
c. The frictions between the surface of the ocean and
the winds drives the movement of the ocean surface
water

The direction of the current?

The Coriolis Force – due to self-rotation of the Earth,
cause a deflection in the path of moving things toward
the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in
the southern hemisphere.

The Coriolis Force is stronger with depth + the effect of Five major gyres (the circular system of
wind is stronger near the surface = Ekman transport surface ocean current)
(net water movement is 90 degree to the wind Equator – westward flowing water
direction) Northern Hemisphere clockwise
Southern Hemisphere counterclockwise
 Ocean – Deep ocean current
Why would deep ocean in motion?
cold dense water sinks and
Thermohaline circulation warmer water rises -->
thermohaline circulation
Dense/cold/saline water plunges down to the deep
ocean, and then the water spreads southward and
then to other ocean basins.

Nearby surface water is drawn to compensate the

down movement of the water.

Initiated at North Atlantic, but results into a global scale

circulation - Global ocean conveyor system.

Very slow (a few centimeters per second), takes around

1000 years to finish one circle.

How do ocean currents work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4pWafuvdrY

Groundwater
• Groundwater - Liquid water lies (widely) beneath the land
surface, occupying opening in bedrock.

• Less than 1% of global total water, but the largest source

of unfrozen freshwater (98%). Equivalent to a layer of
water 55m on the land surface.

• Unsaturated zone - The unsaturated zone is the portion

of the subsurface above the groundwater table. The soil
and rock in this zone contains air as well as water in its
pores.
• Saturated zone - The saturated zone encompasses the
area below ground in which all interconnected openings
within the geologic medium are completely filled with
water.
• Water table – the upper surface of the saturated zone is
the water table

• Aquifers: a body of rock or regolith sufficiently porous

and permeable to store and conduct significant quantities
of water
 Streams
• Stream flow: overland (precipitation) + base flow (groundwater).
Less than 1% of freshwater

• A stream consists of water flowing downslope in a passageway. A

river refers to streams of significant size.
• Channel (passageway): an efficient conduit for carrying water.

• Drainage basin (watershed or catchment), the area of land where

precipitation collects and drains off, feeding the flow of rivers and
their tributaries ---This is the process of water draining from higher
points of land to lower laying areas.
• The size of the drainage area is proportional to the size and volume
of water of streams.

• Discharge: the quantity of water passing a point on a stream bank

during a given interval of time (volume of water)
• Discharge (Q) = Cross-section of channel * flow velocity

• Move sediment and dissolved matter

 Lakes and wetlands
• Lakes and wetlands stores less than 1% of
unfrozen freshwater.

• Lake: a body of inland water of appreciable size

with an open surface. Smaller is called pond.
• Most found in high latitudes and mountains (due
to glacial activities). Canada contains nearly half
of the world’s lakes.

• Wetland: an area that is either permanently or

intermittently moist.
• May or may not have open water and tend to be
highly biologically productive, with dense
vegetation and a variety of animals.
• Include bogs, marshes and coastal wetlands.
Soil moisture
• Soil moisture is water held in the unsaturated zone between
the soil surface and the water table. Direct for plant use.

• Water moves vertically and horizontally due to internal

forces determined by how wet or dry the soil is and by
gravity. In most cases, gravity is the greatest force, causing
water to flow downwards (redistribution or percolation).

• If the water movement is deep, the percolating water will

recharge the groundwater.

• The direct water supply for plant growth is soil moisture – in

rooting zone.
Soil water content

Three key levels of soil moisture to

indicate the easiness of plant to extract
water
• Saturation: water in the soil move
downward freely to recharge the
groundwater. Driven by the force of gravity
• Field Capacity: the maximum soil water
content retained against the force of
gravity by matric forces (by soil particles),
usually at tension of -0.033 MPa
• Wilting point: The point at which matric
forces hold water too tightly for plant
extraction (-1.5 MPa) where high evaporation or Field capacity and wilting point
movement of water out of the soil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BYxTrX_ynU
(not a lot of free water)
Fluxes
• The largest water
fluxes on earth:
• 1. precipitation
• 2. evaporation over
ocean
• 3. evapotranspiration
over land
• 4. stream discharge
• 5. atmospheric
transport

Oki et al. 2006, Science

• Latent heat of vaporization is the amount of energy that must be added to a liquid substance, to transform a quantity
of that substance into a gas.
• Evaporation acts like an air conditioner for the surface because heat is used when water enters the atmosphere as
moisture. But at the same time, water vapor acts as a green house gas by trapping radiation in the lower atmosphere.
Evapotranspiration (ET)

su
su

n
• Evaporation occurs when a moist surface is exposed

n
wind

lig
lig

ht
to drier air, and the Sun provide energy to transform

ht
water from liquid to gaseous.

• As air parcels move away from the surface, they carry

with them moisture from the surface. air air

• Water evaporates from the surface, increasing the Evaporation Transpiration

amount of water vapor in the surrounding air. When
the air is saturated with water vapor, evaporation
ceases.
Water Water
• Sunlight provides energy, wind determines the
transport rate, air moisture control atmospheric
demand.

• Properties of plants: the openness of the small pores

on leaf surface and the number of leaves.
Dynamics of Evapotranspiration

Global evapotranspiration from Earth’s land

surface is about 550 mm of water per year
(Jung et al. 2010). Other estimates range from
544 to 631 mm per year (Mueller et al. 2011).

• This image shows a forest in Amazon

transpiring. As the climate warms, the
evapotranspiration is expected to intensify.

T/ET (Transpiration/Evapotranspiration) estimate

of 0.62 ± 0.06, increase with vegetation cover
Polarity of water

• Water molecules remain joined to each other due H-bonds between

water molecules
• Although H-bond is very weak, but when they are present in
enormous numbers as in case of water
Water movement in trees - Cohesion-tension
• Transpiration provides the
force that pulls water from
soil.
• Cohesion binds water
molecules together
• Adhesion is the attraction
between the water
molecules and the
container’s surface (xylem)
Precipitation
• Condensation: as water vapor moves up in the
atmosphere, some of the water vapor change
from gaseous form into liquid/solid.
• Precipitation: condensed water, gathered into
droplets or particles, falls under the influence
of gravity as precipitation (rain or snow).

• Global average rainfall is about 1000 mm/yr

(in comparison land ET is 550 mm/yr), though
with large spatial and temporal variability.

Necessary steps to form precipitation

1. Cooling of air to dew point temperature
2. Condensation onto cloud condensation nuclei (CCN)
3. Growth of droplets/ice crystals
4. A steady supply of water vapor

Dew point https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjQMfOyxJms

Features of the hydrological cycle
• A fundamental concept of the hydrological cycle is that
water is neither lost nor gained from the earth over time.

• Solar energy provides the energy that drives and sustains

the cycling of water on earth.

• There is no beginning or end to the cycle.

• The supply of water on earth is constant, but the allocation

of water in storage or in circulation can vary with time.