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2.7: Soils and the Hydrologic Cycle

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     1. Describe the role of soil in the hydrologic cycle.

     

     


     2. What is a watershed and what are three potential routes for water falling in a watershed?

     

     


     3. Write the water balance equation and define all the variables in the equation.

     

     


     4. What is meant by antecedent condition and why is it important?

     

     


     5. List five factors that affect infiltration.

     

     


     6. If a pan evaporation study indicates that 0.8 cm of water is lost per day, what would the potential evapotranspiration rate equal? (Show your work and include units)

     

     

     7. Define the following:

    a. Vadose zone –

    b. Capillary fringe –

    c. Aquiclude –

    d. Water table –

    e. Unconfined aquifer –

    f. Confined aquifer –

     8. Even though the city of Oshkosh has a shallow depth to the water table, there is low susceptibility for groundwater contamination. Why?

     

     

     

     9. What are three factors you should consider when installing a septic tank?

     

     

     

     10. What are three things you can do to decrease runoff and increase infiltration rates in agricultural and/or urban areas?

    This page titled 2.7: Soils and the Hydrologic Cycle is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Mark W. Bowen via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.