CHAPTER 5: WATER

Water is a chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen elements, H2O. It can exist as a solid (ice), liquid
(water), or gas (water vapor). Water is the most common element on Earth and vital to all living
organisms. It covers 70% of the Earth's surface, and provides a habitat for large numbers of aquatic
organisms. It is the largest constituent of all living organisms the human body consists of about 65%
water. Pure water is a colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid which freezes at 0°C/32°F, and boils at
100°C/212°F. Natural water in the environment is never pure and always contains a variety of dissolved
substances. Some 97% of the Earth's water is in the oceans; a further 2% is in the form of snow or ice,
leaving only 1% available as fresh water for plants and animals. The recycling and circulation of water
through the biosphere is termed the water cycle, or hydrological cycle'; regulation of the water balance
in organisms is termed osmoregulation.

The water cycle

Water occurs on the Earth's surface as standing water in oceans and lakes, as running water in rivers and
streams, as rain, and as water vapor in the atmosphere. Together these sources comprise the
hydrosphere which is in a constant state of flux as water vapor condenses to fall as rain, and after
flowing through rivers and streams into lakes and oceans is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation.
And so the cycle continues. Since the hydrological cycle is a closed system, the amount of water in the
Earth's hydrosphere is constant. The cycle is powered by solar radiation which provides the energy to
maintain the flow through the processes of evaporation. transpiration, precipitation, and runoff.

Osmoregulation

Water is very important to living organisms: helps cells to maintain their form; as a solvent, it dissolves
salts, sugars, proteins, and many other substances that are involved in metabolism and the digestion of
food: it enables the transportation of bodily wastes, and the maintenance of a stable body temperature
through perspiration and evaporation. Bu too much water can be dangerous. The process tha maintains
an equable balance of water content in an organism is osmoregulation. Organisms gain water in a
number of ways by osmosis, in food, and by respiration. They lose water by evaporation, in urine, and by
osmosis. In humans, the kidneys play a very important role in the regulation of water balance.

Water makes up 60-70% of the human body or about 40 1/70 pt of which 25 1/53 pt are inside the cells,
15 1/26 pt outside (121/21 pt in tissue fluid, and 3 1/5 pt in blood plasma). A loss of 4 1/7 pt may cause
hallucinations; a loss of 8-10 1/14-18 pt may cause death. About 1.5 1/2.6 pt a day are lost through
breathing, perspiration, and faeces, and the additional amount lost in urine is the amount needed to
keep the balance between input and output. In temperate climates, people cannot survive more than
five or six days without water, or two or three days in a hot environment.
A family of two adults and two children uses approximately 200 1/350 pt per day (UK figures). The
British water industry was privatized in 1989, and in 1991 the UK was taken to court for falling to meet
EC drinking-water standards on nitrate and pesticide levels.

Properties of water

with a relative molecular mass of 18, water has unusual properties for a molecule of its size, and many
of these properties have biological significance. It is a polar molecule with a slight positive charge at one
end and a slight negative charge at the other. The oxygen molecule has a negative charge and attracts
the positively charged hydrogen atoms of other water molecules, with the result that hydrogen bonds
are formed between the water molecules holding them together. This makes water a very good solvent
for other polar molecules and ionic substances which become more reactive in solution. Thus it provides
the medium for metabolic reactions in organic cells and is vital in the transport of substances around the
bodies of organisms. For example, food substances, hormones and urea are dissolved and transported in
blood plasma which consists of over 90% water.

Water has a high heat capacity, which means that it requires large amounts of heat energy to produce
small rises in temperature. Consequently temperature changes in water are usually quite small and this
is important in cells where metabolic reactions are controlled by enzymes; extemally, it also provides
fairly constant environment for aquatic organisms. great deal of heat is required to change water from
liquid state to vapor and this is important in

temperature control in mammals. When the body becomes overheated, the animal sweats, thus the
heat used for the vaporization of water in sweat is lost from the body, thereby cooling it.

In liquid form, water cannot be compressed: when frozen, it expands by / of its volume. It has its
maximum density at 4°C/39.2°F (one cubic centimeter of water has a mass of one gram forming the unit
of specific gravity). When cooled below this temperature. the density of water decreases so that ice
floats on the surface. This has been an important factor for the evolution of life on Earth, particularly in
Arctic and temperate regions.

The individual molecules of water have great attraction for one another, producing high surface tension,
and this is important in the conduction of water through the xylem tissue of plants. Plants require water
to carry nutrients from the root zone into the body of the plant, to enable photosynthesis to take place,
and to aid transpiration.

Human Impact

Water is not evenly distributed across the planet's surface-in some places there is too little, in others too
much. Expanding populations are making greater and greater demands on supplies, although human
impac on the water cycle is mainly in the runoff sector, with water being diverted for domestic,
industrial, and agricultural uses. However, modern society interferes with almost all aspects of the cycle:
agricultural and forestry practices disrupt evaporation and transpiration: boreholes and wells allow
access to the groundwater system; and the construction of dams and reservoirs creates additional
storage. Since the cycle is a closed system, human activities cannot deplete the overd supply, but excess
withdrawal from the runoff or groundwater sectors can create localized shortages of water. Most
human uses involve only short-term withdrawal from the system, but often the water is returned with
its quality greatly impaired by pollutants Pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture and weedkillers
from road verges are washed into ground water used for public water supplies; industrial chemicals get
into drinking water from rivers.

HUMAN CONSUMPTION

The major demand is for fresh water, but the proportion of fresh water to saline is very small - only 3%
of the total volume of the hydrosphere. According to two UN reports in January 1997, large areas of the
globe will start running critically short of water in the next 30 years. Total worldwide water consumption
has been growing at 2.5% a year, roughly twice as fast as the population, and by 1997 it had reached
4.200 cubic kilometers annually. During the 20th century. water consumption has risen six fold and, as
many rivers cross national boundaries, there is a danger that growing demands for this resource in the
future could lead to conflict.

Water cycle (Hydrological cycle)

The natural circulation of water through the upper part of the Earth. It is a complex system involving a
number of physical and chemical processes (such as evaporation, precipitation, and infiltration) and
stores (such as rivers, oceans, and soil).

Water is lost from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere by evaporation caused by the Sun's heat on the
surface of lakes, rivers, and oceans, and through the transpiration of plants. This atmospheric water is
carried by the air moving across the Earth, and condenses as the air cools to form clouds, which in turn
deposit moisture on the land and sea as precipitation. The water that collects on land flows to the ocean
overland - as streams, rivers, and glaciers - or through the soil infiltration) and rock (groundwater). The
boundary that marks the upper limit of groundwater is called the water table.

The oceans, which cover around 70% of the Earth's surface, are the source of most of the moisture in
the atmosphere.