Water at the Surface of Earth

An Introduction to Ecosystem Hydrodynamics

David M. Miller

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 1982
• Print ISBN:
  9780124967526
• eBook ISBN:
  9780080924779
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Hydrology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Water at the Surface of the Earth: An Introduction to Ecosystem Hydrodynamics provides an introduction to the ways in which biological, physical, cultural, and urban systems at the surface of the earth operate, with a particular focus on the hydrodynamics of ecosystems, i.e., water and its association with other forms of matter, including pollutants, and with several forms of energy. The chapter sequence in this book follows the downward progress of water from the lower atmosphere, through ecosystems at the earth's surface, through the soil and mantle rock, to the ""waters under the earth."" In other words, the book begins with input of water to ecosystems, then describes how it is processed in these systems, and ends with the liquid water yield from them. The book first discusses storms in the atmosphere. These are systems that convert inflows of water vapor into outflows of raindrops and snowflakes that are precipitated to the underlying surface. This is followed by separate chapters on how water is delivered from the atmosphere to surface ecosystems; water budgets at the surface and in the soil; evaporation from these systems back to the atmosphere; water in the local air and rocks; and horizontal movement of water transformed by ecosystems where the preceding storages and fluxes were located.

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Inside Front Cover
• Front Matter
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Chapter I: Introduction
• Chapter II: Atmospheric Vapor Flows and Atmospheric Storms
• Chapter III: Point Rainfall–the Delivery of Water to an Ecosystem
• Chapter IV: Hydrologic Storms
• Chapter V: Large-Scale Organization of Rainfall
• Chapter VI: Reception of Water by Ecosystems
• Chapter VII: Water Detained on the Soil Surface
• Chapter VIII: Infiltration of Water into the Soil of an Ecosystem
• Chapter IX: Soil Moisture
• Chapter X: Evaporation from Wet Surfaces
• Chapter XI: Evaporation from Well-Watered Ecosystems
• Chapter XII: Evaporation from Drying Ecosystems
• Chapter XIII: Water in the Local Air
• Chapter XIV: Percolation from Ecosystems
• Chapter XV: Groundwater and its Outflows into Local Ecosystems
• Chapter XVI: Surface Transports from Ecosystems
• Chapter XVII: Off-Site Yield of Ecosystems
• Chapter XVIII: Water in Ecosystems
• Index
• International Geophysics Series