Back to the full dot-point answer
EnglandGeographyQuick questions
Component 1: Physical Systems - Earth's Life Support Systems
Quick questions on Water and carbon in the tropical rainforest: stores, flows and deforestation - OCR A-Level Geography
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the water cycle in the rainforest?Show answer
The rainforest water cycle is dominated by recycling. Of the heavy rainfall, a large fraction is intercepted by the multi-layered canopy and re-evaporated, and much of what reaches the soil is taken up by roots and transpired. The combined evapotranspiration loads the atmosphere with moisture that condenses and falls again as convectional rainfall, so the forest effectively waters itself; a significant share of Amazon rainfall is recycled rather than imported from the ocean. Stores are skewed to the biosphere and atmosphere rather than the soil, and the dense vegetation keeps overland flow and erosion low despite the rainfall intensity.
What is the carbon cycle in the rainforest?Show answer
Carbon turns over rapidly. Photosynthesis fixes large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide into the dense biomass (high net primary productivity), while respiration and decomposition return carbon to the atmosphere; in an undisturbed forest these are roughly balanced, with a small net sink. The largest store is the above-ground and below-ground biomass; the litter and soil store is comparatively small because decomposition is so fast. Carbon also leaves via rivers as dissolved and particulate organic matter.
What is q1?Show answer
State two reasons rainforest soils contain relatively little carbon. [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Explain one way deforestation changes the local water cycle. [4 marks]
Have a question we have not covered?
This dot-point answer is short enough that we have not extracted many short questions yet. Read the full dot-point answer or ask Mo, our study assistant, in the chat for follow ups.