The water cycle & freshwater

1. What role do trees play in a watershed during heavy rain: their canopy intercepts rain and roots help water infiltrate soil, or they block all evaporation?

2. What happens when moist air is forced to rise over a mountain range: it cools, condenses and drops rain on the windward side, or it warms and dries?

3. What forms when cold air cools water vapour below 0 °C high in clouds so ice crystals grow into six-sided flakes: snow or dew?

4. What stage of the water cycle occurs when cloud droplets grow heavy enough to fall as rain, snow, sleet or hail: precipitation or evaporation?

5. What happens to river discharge shortly after heavy rainfall in its drainage basin: river flow increases, or river flow stops?

6. Where is the largest reservoir of water on Earth (about 97% of all Earth’s water) stored: in the oceans and seas, or in rivers?

7. What is the dry region on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range called: a rain shadow or a delta?

8. When spring temperatures warm mountain snowpacks, the resulting liquid water flowing into streams is called: snowmelt runoff or condensation?

9. What stage of the water cycle occurs when rising water vapour cools high in the atmosphere and forms tiny cloud droplets: condensation or infiltration?

10. What combined term describes the total water vapour transferred to the atmosphere from both soil evaporation and plant transpiration: evapotranspiration or precipitation?

11. What do we call the release of water vapour into the air from plant leaves through their stomata: transpiration or condensation?

12. What do we call an underground layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel that holds groundwater: an aquifer or a canopy?