The Atmosphere and Living Beings
This gas in the atmosphere is used by most organisms for respiration to obtain energy.
What is oxygen?
Water molecules are made of two atoms of this element and one atom of oxygen.
What is hydrogen?
About 97% of Earth’s water is found in these large bodies of saltwater.
What are oceans and seas?
Name the layers of the atmosphere
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
This atmospheric gas absorbs ultraviolet radiation in the stratosphere, protecting living organisms from DNA damage.
What is ozone (O₃)?
This gas in the atmosphere is necessary for plants to carry out photosynthesis.
What is carbon dioxide?
Water can naturally exist on Earth in these three states of matter.
What are solid, liquid, and gas?
Only about this percentage of Earth’s water is freshwater found on land.
What is 3%?
Where is the ozone layer?
The stratosphere
Even though water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface, humans can directly use only a very small fraction of it because most freshwater is stored in these two places.
What are glaciers/icecaps and groundwater?
This layer of the atmosphere contains ozone that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
What is the stratosphere?
This property of water allows many substances to dissolve in it, making it useful for transporting nutrients in living organisms.
What is being a good solvent?
This process occurs when the Sun heats water and it changes into water vapor and rises into the atmosphere.
What is evaporation?
In which layer do we witness shooting stars?
mesosphere
This property of water allows it to moderate Earth’s climate by absorbing and releasing large amounts of heat slowly.
What is high specific heat capacity?
The atmosphere protects Earth from these space rocks by causing them to burn up due to friction.
What are meteorites (or meteoroids)?
This property explains why insects can walk on water and why water forms a thin elastic layer at the surface.
What is surface tension?
This process happens when water vapor cools and forms tiny droplets that create clouds.
What is condensation?
How much of air is composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide?
N - 78%
O - 21%
CO2 - .033%
In the water cycle, this process occurs when water from precipitation seeps through soil and rock to become groundwater.
What is infiltration?
This effect occurs when gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor trap heat in the atmosphere and keep Earth warm.
What is the greenhouse effect?
When water freezes, its volume increases and the solid form floats on liquid water. This solid form is called this.
What is ice?
This step of the water cycle occurs when water falls from clouds to Earth as rain, snow, or hail.
What is precipitation?
Name three qualities of the troposphere
1. earths surface to 12 km up
2. most of atmosphere's air found here
3. life develops here
4. weather occurs here
This plant process releases water vapor into the atmosphere and is an important part of the water cycle.
What is transpiration?