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The Biological Importance of Water
Water is essential to life; with out water life on earth would not exist. Water is a major component of cells, forming between 70 and 95% of the mass of the cell. This means that we are made from approximately 80% water by mass and some soft bodied creatures like jellyfish are made of about 96% water. Water also provides an environment for organisms to live in, 75% of the earth is covered in water.
Water has a number of important properties essential for life; most of these properties are due to the hydrogen bonds in the water. Water is formed from one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms which are bonded together covalently. ... However this uneven distribution of electrons is essential in giving water its many properties. ...
The dipoles of water molecules effects how water responds to the change in temperature. ... The forces that attract the water molecules are very strong; the force is called a dipole-dipole interaction or a hydrogen bond. ... 2 joules of energy to heat to heat every 1g of water by 1 C. ... This is made use of as a cooling aid within animals and plants, as the water evaporates it takes heat with it therefore cooling the organism.
This high specific heat capacity that water has is also very important to aquatic organisms. The sea and other large amounts of water such as lakes have steady temperatures, they do not change temperature easily when heat is added or taken away from them.
Approximate Word count = 1186
Approximate Pages = 4.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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