The water cycle is the constant movement of water that occurs above and below the earths surface, and has no starting point or end.
It is a process that includes an existing water source, the atmosphere, solar radiation, evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, infiltration, percolation and runoff.
To describe a quick summary on how the water cycle works, we will give a starting point of any existing body of water, the ocean, lakes, rivers, streams or even ice or snow.
The sun heats these bodies of water and the process of evaporation takes place, the turning of water into a vapor form.
This vapor is then raised into the atmosphere and carried away by air currents.
As these vapors cool, they condense into clouds.
These clouds are moved around the earths atmosphere, colliding with other cloud particles and growing in size before dropping from the sky as some form of precipitation, like rain, sleet, hail or snow.
All forms of precipitation that fall back to the earths surface have an important part in the water cycle and the development of plant life.
It can be as runoff back to the ocean, rivers, streams or lakes or it can soak back into the ground.
This process of water soaking back into the ground is known as infiltration, and can benefit the development of plant life by dissolving natural nutrients that exist in soils.
If the soil conditions permit, this water can percolate deep into the ground to replenish aquifers.
Some of the water that infiltrates or percolates through the ground can also end up back into the ocean, rivers, streams and lakes to keep this continuous cycle in motion.
When plants uptake the water that has infiltrated the soil, they not only benefit from the soils dissolved nutrients, they also are an important part of the water cycle.
Some plants can even be used as a method of soil redemption to remove toxic contaminates that have been dissolved by water from the soil.