Water
Below, note the Pacific's biological deserts at low latitudes, especially in summer (upper B&W map), and the high productivity along the northern coasts. The color graph above shows a similar story for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, except off the coasts of Argentina, western south Africa, Arabia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. The top map also shows hotspots at the mouths of the Amazon, Paraná, Congo, St. Lawrence, Rhine, Danube, Yellow, Volga, Amur, and Yukon Rivers.
Biological activity in the ocean is highest (1) in cold water, (2) near coasts, and (3) near river mouths.
from draft 2013 US National Climate Assessment.
From this graph, total US use in 2005 was ~445 GigaTonnes (445 cu km). Consumptive use was ~132. That's ~1,500 cubic meters per person per year (1,125 gallons per person per day).
Of that, household hot water use was 20-25 gallons per person and household cold water use a bit more.
The big users were agriculure and cooling power plants fired by coal, gas, and uranium. Thermal power plants accounted for 41% of fresh water use, while agriculture acounted for 40% (37% for irrigation). Industry and mining accounted for 6%. (Thermal power plants also used 58 billion gallons per day of salt water for cooling, 40% as much as the fresh water they used.)
General Water Articles
Are Water Cycles the Missing Piece of the Climate Crisis Puzzle? 0324
Water Resources to Become Less Predictable with Climate Change 0722 - With warming, more preipitatuion falls as rain ande less as snow. Also, snow melts earlier in the spring, leaving less or none for summer.
Why Climate Change Matters - Water 0516
California Water Conservation Saved Energy, Cut Greenhouse Gases 0616
Humans Are Using Up Far More of Earth’s Water than Previously Thought 1215
Acid Ocean - Hot & Breathless - UNESCO 1113 - PDF, 26 pp
Global Majority Faces Water Shortages within 2 Generations 0513
World Faces Water Crisis, as Global Warming Upsets Delicate Balance 0306
Above are changes in the amount of precipitation falling in very heavy events (the heaviest 1% of all daily events) from 1958 to 2011 for each region.
Section Map: Water