Omnipresence of Water - Research Paper Example

Running head: OMNIPRESENT AND OMNIPOTENT WATER. Omnipresence of Water Kona Vishnu India 15th October 2005 The article Omnipresence of Water begins with a brief introduction of importance of water followed by description of implications of changes in density of water along with its effects on the oxygen content of water and on aquatic ecosystem. Omnipresence of Water About 80% of the blood contains water. Blood helps in transportation of oxygen to tissues and carbondioxide from tissues, in addition to being a life support system for the body, regulating the body temperature and acting as a buffering agent to regulate pH (acidity or alkalinity) of body fluids thus underlining the importance of water.

Water is the medium for chemical reactions in body (Barney Harris, Jr. and H. H. VanHorn). Water is the only pure substance found naturally in all the three states of matter i.e., gaseous state, liquid state and solid state. The density of water changes with temperature, as the temperature of water is lowered it becomes dense and at 4C it reaches maximum density, on further cooling the volume of water expands by about 9% to become less dense and form ice. Thus the ice floats on water and doesn't sink..(Explanation of the Anomalies of Water (1-10) - Shrinks on melting) If water were solid when more dense in an artificial scenario, then the ice wouldn't float and sink to the bottom consequently the oxygen content in the water at the bottom would increase (Since at lower temperatures the oxygen content is increased) then the metabolic activity of microorganisms near surface would increase because of increased temperatures but face oxygen deficiency (Since at higher temperatures the oxygen content is decreased).

Oxygen depletion is also due to buildup of organic materials from human activity, thus causing oxygen deficiency to the fish, invertebrate, plant and aerobic bacteria. Oxygen levels below 3 parts per million would mean a grave situation for all these aquatic organisms and an aquatic ecosystem imbalance. (Exploring Environment Water Quality- Dissolved Oxygen) If the water was denser then all the oceans, water bodies, lakes and drinking water sources would be frozen or solidified and only a few inches would melt in summer.

The oceans frozen portions would essentially be salt free.( Water (molecule) - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Water has high surface tension thus making it possible to maintain a water column in the xylem of the stems due to cohesive nature of the water and the adhesive nature makes it possible to stick to the xylem. This would not be possible if the water were dense and in solid form (Water (molecule) - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Water is considered as universal solvent due to its polarity.

Water dissolves ionic solutes completely because the negative hydroxide ( OH) ion is attracted towards the cations of the solute and the positive Hydrogen (H+) is attracted towards the anions of the solute thus dissolving the solute totally. An example of a nonionic solute is table sugar. The water dipoles make hydrogen bonds with the polar regions of the sugar molecule (OH groups) and allow it to be carried away into solution. These solvent properties are very vital in biochemistry because many of the reactions take place only in aqueous solutions.

If water were dense and solid no life would be possible in this universe, since no biochemical reaction would be possible. In such circumstances the acquatic ecosystem also would never ever exist.( Water (molecule) - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) References 1. "Water and Its Importance to Animals" - Barney Harris, Jr. and H. H. VanHorn . Article copyrighted by University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/scripts/htmlgen.

exeDOCUMENT_DS085 2. Water (molecule) - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_(molecule)#Surface_tension 3. Explanation of the Anomalies of Water (1-10) - Shrinks on melting http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/explan.html#density 4. Exploring Environment Water Quality (Dissolved Oxygen) http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/waterq/wqglossary.html