Land surface

Many of the factors that influence the c.xtcnt of contamination are site specific, cither climatic or hydrogeological. Other factors that influence the extent of contamintition relate to land surface features such as topography or dcNclopmcnt, which determine exposure routes. Additional important... 

Water returns to the atmosphere via evaporation from the oceans and evapotranspiration from the land surface. Like precipitation, evaporation is largest over the oceans (88% of total) and is distributed non-uniformly around the globe. Evaporation requires a large input of energy to overcome the latent heat of vaporization, so global patterns are similar to radiation balance and temperature distributions, though anomalous local maxima and minima occur due to the effects of wind and water availability. 

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the collective term for land surface evaporation and plant transpiration, which are difficult to isolate in practice. Transpiration refers to the process in which water is transported through plants and returned to the atmosphere through pores in the leaves called stomata, and is distinct from direct evaporation of intercepted precipitation from leaf surfaces. Some land surface processes and the roles of vegetation in the water and energy balances are illustrated in Fig. 6-5. Due to... 

Fig. 6-5 Evaporation and transpiration from vegetation are among the complex land surface interactions in the hydrologic cycle. (From Dickinson, 1984.)...

Subsurface runoff. When precipitation hits the land surface, the vast majority does not go directly into the network of streams and rivers in fact, it may be cycled several times before ever reaching a river and the ocean. Instead, most precipitation that is not intercepted by the vegetation canopy and re-evaporated infiltrates into the soil, where it may reside as soil moisture, percolate down to ground-water, or be transpired by plants. 

The ability to predict runoff and water availability is critical to water resources planners. However, the complex non-linearities of the hydrologic cycle make this an extremely difficult process. Even where precipitation is fairly well known, runoff prediction is a non-trivial problem, as land surface response depends as much (or more) on precipitation patterns and timing as on precipitation amount. The historical record of monthly rainfall and inflow at the Serpentine Dam, near Perth, Western Australia, provides an illustration of this sensitivity (Fig. 6-11a and b). 

The complexities of land surface response and runoff generation have also presented a major obstacle to global climate modelers. Hydrologic response is linked to several important climate feedbacks (see Section 6.4.2), so imtil the hydro-logic cycle, and in particular its land surface component, can be accurately represented, there is little hope for accurate assessments of global change. 

Five components of the hydrosphere play major roles in climate feedbacks - atmospheric moisture, clouds, snow and ice, land surface, and oceans. Changes to the hydrologic cycle, among other things, as a result of altered climate conditions are then referred to as responses. Interactions with climate can best be explored by examirung potential response to a climate perturbation, in this case, predicted global warming. 

Transport in water is an important mechanism for transfer of biogeochemical elements between the atmosphere, land, and oceans. In particular, rain is the primary means of removal from the atmosphere for many substances, and rivers (and to some extent groundwater) convey weathering products and runoff from the land surface to the oceans. 

Rainwater and snowmelt water are primary factors determining the very nature of the terrestrial carbon cycle, with photosynthesis acting as the primary exchange mechanism from the atmosphere. Bicarbonate is the most prevalent ion in natural surface waters (rivers and lakes), which are extremely important in the carbon cycle, accoxmting for 90% of the carbon flux between the land surface and oceans (Holmen, Chapter 11). In addition, bicarbonate is a major component of soil water and a contributor to its natural acid-base balance. The carbonate equilibrium controls the pH of most natural waters, and high concentrations of bicarbonate provide a pH buffer in many systems. Other acid-base reactions (discussed in Chapter 16), particularly in the atmosphere, also influence pH (in both natural and polluted systems) but are generally less important than the carbonate system on a global basis. 

Unlike other biogeochemical elements, phosphorus does not have a significant atmospheric reservoir. Thus, while some amount of phosphorus is occasionally dissolved in rain, this does not represent an important link in the phosphorus cycle. River runoff is the primary means of transport between the land surface and oceans, and unlike the other elements discussed. 

Figure 7-7 depicts the transport of one substance - water - due to the general circulation. Here we see the overall consequence of the general circulation with its systematic pattern of vertical motions and weather systems. Water evaporates from the oceans and land surfaces at subtropical latitudes and is transported both toward the equator and the poles. Precipitation falls largely at the equator and in the mid-latitudes. Hence, the subtropics are arid, with evaporation exceeding precipitation. The polar regions likewise are arid due to water having been removed in mid-latitude weather systems prior to arrival in the Arctic... 

Bonan, G. B. (1995a). Land-atmosphere CO2 exchange simulated by a land surface process model coupled to an atmospheric general circulation model, j. Geophys. Res. 100,2817-2831. 

Bonan, G. B. (1996a). A land surface model (LSM version 1.0) for ecological, hydrological, and atmospheric studies Technical description and user s guide, NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-417+STR, Natl. Cent, for Atmos. Res., Boulder, CO. 

Bonan, G. B. (1998). The land surface climatology of the NCAR Land Surface Model (LSM 1.0) coupled to the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM3), /. Clim. in press. 

Pollard, D., Sitch, S. and Haxeltine, A. (1996). An integrated biosphere model of land surface processes, terrestrial carbon balance, and vegetation dynamics. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 10, 603-628. 

Sellers, P. J., Los, S. O., Tucker, C. J., Justice, C. O., Dazlich, D. A., CoUatz, G. J. and Randall, D. A. (1996b). A revised land surface parameterization (SiB2) for atmospheric GCMs. Part II The generation of global fields of terrestrial biophysical parameters from satellite data, /. Clim. 9, 706-737. 

Another family of feedbacks involving biota arise via the process of evapotranspiration in which the rate of water vapor is transferred from the land surface to the atmosphere is mediated by plants. Several consequences have been proposed that include influences of biota on the greenhouse effect of water vapor as well as relative humidity and clouds. Lovelock (1988) suggested that tropical forests might be kept cool by increasing cloud cover in response to higher relative humidity released through enhanced evapotranspiration (via the clouds influences on albedo). Yet another connection arises because tree-covered land has different turbulence properties above it than bare soil, which also influences the cloud cover above. 

Apart from release into air, which is important globally, the direct transfer of PAH to water or land surfaces can be very important locally. Wreckages of oil tankers and discharges from oil terminals cause marine pollution by crude oil, which contains appreciable quantities of PAH. Disposal of waste containing PAH around industrial premises has caused serious pollution of land in some localities. 

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