Hydrological consequences of global warming

Article By:

Miller, Norman L. Climate Science Department, Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California.

Last reviewed:June 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.329700

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• Hydrological consequences of global warming, published June 2009:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Accelerating fluxes and stores of water in the atmosphere, oceans, and land regions because of global warming. Figure 1 shows the primary hydrologic cycle compartments and fluxes. The total volume of water in the Earth system is approximately 1.36 × 10⁹ km³, with more than 97% stored in the oceans, 2.9% stored as freshwater in lakes, rivers, ice, snow, and available groundwater, and approximately 0.1% in the atmosphere. The cycling of water consists of atmospheric water vapor transport and precipitation, surface evaporation, transpiration from vegetation, infiltration of water into the ground, overland runoff and riverflow, and water stored in the oceans, snow, glaciers, permafrost, and deep groundwater. Surface water evaporates and is transported by the winds and precipitates back to the surface, where a portion is reevaporated into the atmosphere, another portion infiltrates into the ground, and the remainder runs off into rivers and ultimately into the oceans. See also: Global climate change; Hydrology

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