Fleming 1

Alistair Fleming
Dr. Kirchner
AP Biology 1
8/24/09
Essay #1: Unique Properties of Water and How They Affect Earth
The first characteristic of water that contributes to Earth's ability to maintain life is
water's cohesive behavior. This property is a result of the hydrogen bonds that hold the H20
molecules together. A hydrogen bond in liquid H20 is about one-twentieth the strength of a
normal covalent bond. When water is in liquid form, the hydrogen bonds are fragile and form,
break, and reform with frequency. Since there are so many hydrogen bonds, water is actually a
very structured liquid. Cooperatively, hydrogen bonds hold water together. This collective
"clinging" is referred to as cohesion. Cohesion enables the upwards flow of water from the soil
and roots up to the leaves against the downwards gravitational pull in plants. When water in the
leaves evaporates, the plant replaces the evaporated water with water stored in the veins.
Hydrogen bonding and water structure cause H20 molecules leaving the veins to pull on H20
molecules further down in the plant. This upwards pull reaches all the way down the plant to the
roots. This quality of water makes it possible for plants to survive by cycling water throughout
their systems against the pull of gravity. Water's surface tension is also influenced by its
structure and cohesive properties. Surface tension is the measure of how difficult it is to stretch
or break the surface of a liquid. H20 molecules on the surface of water are bounded to each other
and to H20 molecules below. Because of the structure of water due to hydrogen bonding, water
behaves as though coated with a film. This trait allows some animals and insects to stand, walk,
or run on water without breaking the surface.
Another influential characteristic of water that effects life on earth is water's ability to
stabilize temperatures. Water stabilizes air temperatures by absorbing heat from warmer air and
releasing heat to air that is cooler without a large change in its own temperature. This is due to
water's relatively high specific heat. The specific heat of water is the amount of heat that must
be absorbed or lost for 1 gram of water to change temperature by 1○C. The specific heat of water
is 1 calorie/gram/○C, which is relatively higher than most other liquids and allows water, as
stated previously, to absorb or lose more heat with a lower change in its own temperature. The
high specific heat of water is due to hydrogen bonding. In order to break hydrogen bonds, heat
must be absorbed and to form them, heat must be released. 1 calorie of heat does causes little
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change in temperature in water because the heat energy is used to break hydrogen bonds. The
energy is then used up before the heat can make the H20 molecules move faster and thus
increases the temperature. Specific heat's relevance to earth is in bodies of water. Large ones
such as oceans absorb huge amounts of heat during the day and at night and during the colder
winters, cooling water can warm the air due to the fact that hydrogen bonds release heat energy
when they form. This phenomenon develops milder climates in coastal areas than those in inland
regions. Specific heat also maintains conditions on land and in sea to sustain life. Specific heat
prevents large temperature fluctuations and keeps temperature within limits suitable for life.
Continued in this section of temperature stabilization is evaporative cooling. To understand
evaporation, one must know what the heat of vaporization is. Heat of vaporization is the
quantity of heat a liquid must absorb for 1 gram of the liquid to be converted from liquid form to
a gaseous form. Water's heat of vaporization is approximately 580 calories of heat energy to
vaporize 1 gram of water at 25○C, which is quite a high heat of vaporization compared to other
fluids. This is also due to the fact that it takes heat to break up hydrogen bonds and then even
more heat energy to create more kinetic energy in water molecules and therefore higher
temperatures. Water's heat of vaporization helps regulate Earth's climate. Large amounts of
solar heat are absorbed by the tropical seas during evaporation of surface waters. From here,
moist, tropical air moves towards the poles and upon cooling, releases heat, condenses, and
forms rain or snow. The water remaining at the surface during and after evaporation cools down
because the "hottest" or fastest moving molecules have turned into gas and dissipated.
Evaporative cooling also provides a mechanism to prevent land-based organisms from
overheating. Evaporation of water from plant leaves keeps the leaves from becoming too warm
in the sun and the evaporation of sweat from human skin disperses body heat and helps to
prevent overheating. Without evaporation, a feeling such as one feels in a high humidity zone
would be ever-present because the sweat would not be able to vaporize and cool the skin.
Water's expansion upon freezing also contributes to the fitness of Earth to sustain life.
Water is less dense as a solid than as a liquid. Because of this, ice (H20 in solid form) floats.
Water expands when solidified due to hydrogen bonding. Water freezes when molecules stop
moving at rates fast enough to break hydrogen bonds. At 0○C, H20 molecules with hydrogen
bonds for lattice crystals in which hydrogen bonds keep each H20 molecule far enough apart to
make ice 10% less dense than liquid water at 4○C. When ice absorbs enough heat to rise above
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0○C, the hydrogen bonds are disrupted and the structure moves to liquid form. If ice sank and
did not expand, all ponds, lakes, and oceans would eventually freeze solid. Without liquid water,
life would be impossible.
The last property of water that influences life is its versatility as a solvent due to its
polarity. The oxygen atom of the H20 molecule has slight negative charge and the hydrogen
atoms have slight positive charges. The negative oxygen atoms are attracted to cations of solutes
and the positive hydrogen atoms are attracted to the anions. Through the system of hydration
shells, water molecules can dissolve all the ions of a solute and create a homogeneous solution
with the solute mixed with thorough composition throughout the water. In living things, many
compounds are dissolved in the water contained in biological fluids such as blood, plant sap, and
all the fluid within cells using the above system. Water, as the book claims, is the solvent of life.