Watersheds are defined at many scales: The Mississippi River watershed contains the Ohio River watershed, which in turn contains smaller watersheds. A fundamental part of the hydrologic cycle, the watershed collects and stores precipitation in soils, lakes, wetlands, or aquifers and disperses water by evaporation, plant transpiration, surface runoff, springs, and base flow to streams. Watersheds of different geographic regions have distinctive characteristics based on climate, topography, and... więcej

Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2023. 2p.