Water Ecology Principles

About four years ago, I organized a small group to try and put together a set of Water Principles, and a number of the earliest articles of this Climate Water Project newsletter (back when I was writing for a much smaller audience) were devoted to discussing these principles. Since then my understanding has deepened, and recently I started attempting to write down a set of water cycle principles again. These ones shine light on the feedback loop of water and ecology. So here is the latest edition of these principles.

WATER ECOLOGY PRINCIPLES

1. Soil sponginess regulates landscape hydration, precipitation recycling, and groundwater recharge. Soil moisture impact rainfall patterns. Increasing the soil’s organic content increases its ability to absorb rain.

2. Forests and the water cycle co-regulate each other. Forests transpire water to create rain. That rain grows forests. Forest transpiration can cause large scale atmospheric circulation shifts, like bringing in the wet season earlier e.g. Amazon rainforest transpiration causes wet season to start two months earlier

3. Microbiome cycle and water cycle co-regulate each other. Microbes and fungi spores seed rain. Rain and rivers transports the microbiome. Rain impacts the growth of ecosystems, which in turn grows the microbiome. The soil microbiome helps to regulate vegetation transpiration.

4. Wetlands cleanse water and recharge aquifers. Wetland plants absorb nutrients. Wetland microbiomes breaks down nutrients and pollutants. The microbiome processing of sediment affects how water filters to aquifers below.

5. Rain is a result of four interacting water cycles mediated by organisms. The four water cycles are large water cycle (ocean to land to river), small water cycle/ precipitation recycling (air to land to air), groundwater cycle (tree roots bring water down in wet times, bring it up in dry times), and dew cycle. Forests, grasslands, and soil microbiome mediate how the small water cycle combines with the large water cycle. Tree roots can push water down during wet season. They bring up groundwater during the dry season, and transpire that water to combine with the small and large water cycle to help create rain. The level of groundwater, and amount of water held on the land, circulating through the dew cycle, thus affects the amount of rain there is.

6. Slow water synchronizes the biogeochemical cycles. Slow water enables vegetation to grow which means water cycle synchronizes better with carbon cycle as well as other biogeochemical cycles - phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen etc.

7. Slow water moves water from wet season to dry season. Slow water recharges aquifers, which then enables springs to hydrate year round, and enable trees to bring up water in dry season to create rain. Vegetation can slow water and hold it in landscape longer.

8. To exit or lessen drought-fire-flood feedback loop, restore soil and water cycle. Droughts increase fire risk. Fire leads to fewer roots holding soil in place. Intense fire leads to waxy hydrophobic surface forming on soil. This leads to more floods with less vegetation and soil to absorb and slow rain. Restoring soil hydrates landscape longer and lessens fires. Restoring soil after fire can restores its ability to absorb rain, and thus lessens floods. Restoring the land after floods help it to better absorb the following rains to hydrate the land. Restoring the small water cycle, groundwater cycle, and dew cycle, lessens droughts and drought impact.

9. Green water helps run earth’s thermoregulatory system. Via transpirational cooling, cloud formation, meridional transport, and as a greenhouse gas. Low clouds cool earth. High clouds warm earth. Green water is defined as water used by plants. Green water facilitates the growth of vegetation, which sequesters carbon.

10. Ecosystems engage in niche construction that involves reconfiguring local and global water cycles. Ecosystems increase the small water cycle, shift groundwater cycle, change river flows, and alter large scale circulation.

11. Evapotranspiration shapes large scale atmospheric water circulation and climate patterns. It does so via water vapor condensation impacts, and transpirational shifting of large scale atmospheric circulation structures like the Hadley cell, Rossby waves, and jet streams. More forest transpiration means more powerful Hadley cell and Ferrel cell, which means less jet stream blocking which means less climate whiplash, and less climate extremes.

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