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How Does Water Cycle In A Schoolyard Ecosystem?

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Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum
Schoolyard and Urban Ecosystem

When rainwater falls from a cloud, many things happen to that water:

Some rainwater is caught by the leaves on plants before it touches the ground.

Some rainwater is absorbed by the ground. This water can be taken by plant roots or it can go all the way to the groundwater, which is a pool of water located deep in the ground.

Some rainwater makes it to the ground but is not absorbed. Instead, the sun warms the water so much that the water turns into a gas (like the steam you see when water boils) and goes back up to the clouds. This is called evaporation.

Some water is released by plants. When plants get warm, they release water they captured from the rain as a gas. This gas goes back into the clouds. This is called transpiration.

Water that goes back to the clouds from transpiration or evaporation helps form water that once again falls as rain. The entire cycle is called the hydrologic cycle or water cycle.

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