The Water Cycle

Water continually cycles around the planet in 10 distinctive steps:

Evaporation happens when liquid water changes to a gaseous state as vapor

Transpiration represents evaporation of water from plant and tree roots into the atmosphere

Sublimation describes how snow and ice change to water vapor without becoming liquid

Condensation happens when water vapor becomes water droplets via cloud formation

Transportation defines how water moves through the atmosphere in its solid, liquid or gaseous form

Precipitation is the water that falls to the planet as ice, rain, snow, sleet, drizzle or hail

Deposition is how water vapor changes to a solid state without becoming liquid, like frost

Infiltration defines how water seeps into the ground and then percolates into the water table

Surface flow describes how rivers, lakes and stream flow to the ocean along with underground aquifers

Plant uptake explains that plants only use 1 percent of the water pulled in by their roots, while the rest goes back into the atmosphere

The Importance of Water to All Life

Looking at the planet from space, if the Earth were hypothetically a body, then water would be its lifeblood. Like air, sunlight and food, without water, there would be no life on the planet.

When humans change an ecosystem without thought to maintaining its natural balance, the cycle of life in the ecosystem can skew to one side or other and disrupt the delicate equilibrium necessary to sustaining the community. Some species may die off, and others may thrive, but in the end, the symbiotic relationships begin to break down and the ecosystem dies. Global warming and climate change caused by pollution are on track to do just that, unless humans work together to restore nature's balance.

Reference: sciencing.com