Climate Change Effect The Hydrological Cycle

CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECT THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
Climate change is caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, most of which comes from
human activities such as burning fossil fuels or farming. The carbon dioxide acts like a blanket,
trapping heat from the Sun in Earth's atmosphere resulting in increased global temperatures.
However, this does not mean it is simply getting hotter everywhere. Increased global temperatures
are leading to strange, sometimes extreme weather patterns as a result of changes to the hydrologic
cycle, also known as the water cycle.
The water cycle, or the hydrologic cycle, refers to the continuous circulation of water within the
Earth’s hydrosphere. Water moves into and from the various reservoirs on, over, and under the
surface of the Earth, and in the process transforms into its various phases of solid (ice), liquid
(water), and gas (vapor), with the total mass of water remaining fairly constant. The physical
processes of evaporation, condensation, sublimation, precipitation, transpiration, and runoff are
responsible for sustaining the water cycle. Heat energy is also exchanged during the cycle, with
this store and release of heat affecting climates worldwide. The water cycle is highly crucial to
maintaining life on Earth, as it replenishes the world’s freshwater resources and moderates
extremes in climate.
Science has shown that climate change touches every corner of our planet’s ecosystem, and the
hydrological cycle is no exception. Because the processes involved are highly dependent on
temperature, changes in one have consequences on the other. Specifically, as global temperatures
have steadily increased at their fastest rates in millions of years, it is directly affected things like
water vapor concentrations, clouds, precipitation patterns, and stream flow patterns, which are all
related to the hydrological cycle. Increased global temperatures lead to increased evaporation, thus
increasing the rate of the hydrologic cycle. Increased evaporation creates more clouds and more
precipitation forming as rain rather than snow due to the increased temperature. This not only
causes more rain, but it also changes the patterns and intensity of rainfall. This not only leads to
flooding from the excess rain, but it also increases the intensity and frequency of droughts in other
regions prone to arid conditions.
Climate change is likely causing parts of the water cycle to speed up as warming global
temperatures increase the rate of evaporation worldwide. More evaporation is causing more
precipitation, on average. We are already seeing impacts of higher evaporation and precipitation
rates, and the impacts are expected to increase over this century as climate warms. Higher
evaporation and precipitation rates are not evenly distributed around the world. Some areas may
experience heavier than normal precipitation, and other areas may become prone to droughts, as
the traditional locations of rain belts and deserts shift in response to a changing climate. Some
climate models predict that coastal regions will become wetter and the middle of continents will
become drier.
In addition, some models forecast more evaporation and rainfall over oceans, but not necessarily
over land. As some areas become more prone to droughts, they are at risk of wildfires and crop
failures in the dry conditions. Other areas, where heavy rainfall is becoming more common, are
more prone to damaging floods. There is evidence that storms are changing their character as
climate changes. With more evaporation, there is more water in the air so storms can produce more
rainfall. In the case of hurricanes and other tropical storms, warmer ocean surface waters can
intensify such storms, leading to more conditions that are hazardous as these storms make landfall.
Although there may not be more tropical storms worldwide in the future, it is likely that there will
be more powerful and destructive storms. Warmer temperatures associated with climate change
and increased carbon dioxide levels may speed plant growth in regions with ample moisture and
nutrients. This could lead to increased transpiration, the release of water vapor into the air by plants
as a result of photosynthesis.
Precipitation is formed by all liquid and solid water particles that fall from clouds and reach the
ground. These particles include drizzle, rain, snow, snow pellets, ice crystals, and hail.
Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that
the water condenses and falls. It is measured in terms of height of water column that accumulates
over an horizontal surface during a given observation time step. Climate change of course may
affect precipitation. In fact, the increase of saturation vapor pressure after global warming implies
that more water may be available in the atmosphere to produce rainfall. However, mean
evaporation and precipitation do not necessarily increase at the above rate, because of the
atmospheric energy budget constraint. Accordingly, precipitation may only increase at the same
rate as the atmosphere can release energy by radiation, which is only 1-2%/°C. Moreover, rainfall
also depends on the circulation of winds. If circulation slows down, rainfall does not increase.
Rising seas is one of those climate change effects. Average sea levels have swelled over 8 inches
(about 23 cm) since 1880, with about three of those inches gained in the last 25 years. Every year,
the sea rises another .13 inches (3.2 mm). The rise is due to thermal expansion of seawater that is
responsible for about half of the rise and melting of ice sheets and glaciers. Sea level rise in not
uniformly distributed on Earth, as it is influenced by local factors including tectonic effects,
subsidence, currents and storms. The oceans are absorbing more than 90 percent of the increased
atmospheric heat associated with emissions from human activity. With continued ocean and
atmospheric warming, sea levels will likely rise for many centuries at rates higher than that of the
current century.
In conclusion, water is the primary medium through which climate change exhibits its impacts on
earth’s ecosystem. Increases in temperature enhance the moisture holding capacity of the
atmosphere and thus, lead to an intensification of the hydrological cycle. The hydrological impacts
of climate change to the individual protected areas are area-specific and vary from region to region

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