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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Stock; flux?

Also known as: stock (of water) · flux (of water)

Definition 9.1 High School Earth and Space Sciences · Chapter 9 — Freshwater Resources

In a budget of water, a stock is the amount of water held in a reservoir — the ocean, the air, the ice, an aquifer, a lake — at a given time, as a volume or a mass. A flux is the amount that passes from one reservoir to another per unit time, for example in cubic kilometres per year.

The global water cycle of the 1990s (schematic; not to scale). Stocks in thousands of km3, fluxes in thousands of km3 per year. After Trenberth and others (2007). Estimates of the stocks differ from one study to another: compare the groundwater and ice here with the table above.
The global water cycle of the 1990s (schematic; not to scale). Stocks in thousands of km3\mathrm{km}^{3}, fluxes in thousands of km3\mathrm{km}^{3} per year. After Trenberth and others (2007). Estimates of the stocks differ from one study to another: compare the groundwater and ice here with the table above.
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