A 1.

1 Water

Learning objectives and guiding questions:

“What physical and chemical properties of water make it essential for life?”

“What are the challenges and opportunities of water as a habitat?”

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Water as the medium of life

Life has originated in the water, with first cells enclosing a small volume of it in a
membrane, where solutes dissolved, and chemical reactions occurred.

The interaction of molecules in water is the basis of all life.

Over 70% of Earth’s surface is water, with most of the

water found in oceans. Water forms a large
proportion of living organisms.

Look at the graph to the left. Where is most of the

Earth’s freshwater stored?

Where is most of the surface water and other

freshwater stored?

Most of a cell and its organelles are made up from water, forming the cytoplasm.

What makes water so useful for cells?

Early cells evolved membranes to

separate their insides (cytoplasm)
from the ocean water. Cell
membranes (phospholipid bilayers)
naturally form in aquaeous medium

Membranes enclose an aqueous medium. This is used for a

number of different cellular processes.

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Water chemistry: Draw a molecule of water showing bonding and non-bonding electrons, and highlight
the polar covalent bond:
Water has some unusual
properties, which are crucial for
living things and to understand
these we first need to look at
the structure of water.

Water has a defined polarity – this is due to the unequal attraction of electrons towards the nuclei of the
respective atoms. The oxygen atom has a larger nucleus (8 protons) than hydrogen (1 proton) and has
therefore a stronger pull towards shared and unshared electrons. This causes an uneven charge distribution.

Name the type of bond which is formed between the atoms in a water molecule:

Why is the bond in a water molecule said to be polar?

Draw hydrogen bonds between 2 – 3 water molecules:

What is a hydrogen bond? Explain.

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 Cohesion of water molecules due to hydrogen bonding and consequences for organisms

A single hydrogen bond is not very strong. This

large number of hydrogen bonds is very strong.
Each water molecule bonds with four others in
a tetrahedral arrangement. This is because of
hydrogen bonds which makes water “stick
together”. Water is therefore cohesive.

The cohesive property of water leads to

important consequences for living organism:
What is surface tension?

How is surface tension of importance for living organism? Give examples:

How does cohesion allow the transport of water under tension in plants?

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Adhesive properties of water:
What are adhesive properties and how are they brought about?

The effect of adhesive forces can be observed when water forms a

meniscus inside test tubes or capillary tubes. Since the polar water
molecules adhere to the polar glass, a meniscus is established. This
contrasts with nonpolar mercury, which does not form a meniscus.

What is capillary action and what is its impact for organism?

Capillary action is also happening in porous solids due to the

large amount of (polar) surface area (soil, paper, cellulose fibers
in plant cell walls). This helps water to rise up from an
underground source.

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Solvent properties of water:

Water is a good solvent because it is a polar

molecule, and it will therefore dissolve
polar solutes easily. An ionic solid such as
Sodium chloride (NaCl) will break into its
ions in water since polar attractions cause
the water molecules to surround and
isolate the solute molecules.

Explain how NaCl (Sodiumchloride) dissolves in water by referring

to the polarity of water, charges on ions and hydration shells:

Because water is a good solvent, it is a medium for

metabolic reactions. Dissolved particles can move
around easily in the cytoplasm of cells and blood
stream of organisms. Solutes such as amino acids,
salts, sugar, and ions needed for cell processes are
dissolved in the plasma of blood. All metabolic
reactions in living things occur in solutions.

91% of the plasma of

blood is composed of
water. The solubility of
substances in blood is
therefore important for an
effective transport around
the circulatory system.

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Hydrophilic & hydrophobic properties of water:

Hydrophilic Hydrophobic
“Water-loving” “Water-hating”
Explanation
Examples

Proteins are composed of polypeptides, which are Substances such as the phospholipid bilayer of cell
long chain of amino acids joined together. membranes have hydrophobic (water hating) and
hydrophilic (water loving) features.
Additional information

Their respective variable side groups orientate themselves This is important; as the membrane forms a protective,
towards or away from the water, depending on their partially permeable barrier around the cell’s content and
associated polarity or charge. This then determines the allows for the separation of metabolic reaction.
specific 3D shape of a polypeptide or protein.

Into the space provided, draw a diagram of a small section of the cell membrane (phospholipid bilayer) and
water molecules on either side. Clearly show the orientation and interaction of the water molecules:

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Summarizing the solubility of some important biological molecules:
Molecule & structure Chemical features Soluble or insoluble in water?
Glucose Glucose as an example for a
simple sugar is polar and
hydrophilic due to the many
-OH (hydroxyl) groups which
are found on his molecule.

Amino Acids Amino acids are the building

blocks of proteins. There are
20 common amino acid,
each is characterized by a
different chemical side
group. The side chain (R-
group) can be charged, polar
or nonpolar .

Oxygen Oxygen is entirely nonpolar

and hydrophobic.

Fats & lipids Fat molecules are entirely

nonpolar due to the long
fatty acid tails which do not
have any polarity.

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Physical properties of water:

1. Buoyancy:
Buoyancy is the ability of any fluid (liquid or gas) to provide vertical
upwards force on an object placed in or on it. When the (buoyant)
force which water exerts on a body is equal to the weight of the
object, it floats.

The images above show a cyanobacteria with gas filled vesicles inside their cells, a bird midair, and fish with
swim bladders. How do these organism use buoyancy as an adaptation to life?

Buonyancy depends on object density. Living organisms have

an overall density close to water and tend to float, making
water a suitable habitat.

Ice is less dense than water and floats

at the surface, becoming the barrier
that protects the liquid water below
from the colder air. This way,
invertebrates can survive the cold
winter months.

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 2. Viscosity
What is viscosity?

What is viscosity caused by?

The viscosity of substances changes with the amount of solute dissolved in it.

Compare and explain the viscosity in water and air at

increasing temperatures by looking at the graph:

3. Specific heat capacity of water

It takes a lot of energy for the temperature of water to change, while the temperature of air changes much
faster. This is expressed through the specific heat capacity. Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy
needed to change the temperature of 1g water by 1°C is 4.18 Joule (J).

Explain why the specific heat capacity for

water is so high:

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 Water is a liquid over a wide range of
temperatures. This is a consequence of
the high specific heat capacity.

To change the temperature of water,

the kinetic energy and molecular
motion must be increased. During
phase changes, the molecular motion
does not increase. Instead, the energy
is going into breaking hydrogen bonds.

The temperature of large bodies of water remains therefore relatively stable, which makes it an ideal habitat
for a lot of organisms, which only tolerate a narrow range of conditions.

The graph on the right

shows the temperature
changes in water and air on
a summer day.

Explain why there is such a big difference in temperatures between water and air:

It takes a lot of energy for water to change temperature. This

means that, when water evaporates, a lot of energy is
required in order to break the hydrogen bonds between
water molecules.

Why does this (The high specific heat capacity of water) make water an effective coolant?

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 4. Thermal conductivity

What is thermal conductivity?

The rate at which heat passes through water is relatively high. Fats and oils conduct heat ca. 25% as quickly as
water, air only ca. 5% as quickly. These materials are therefore insulators of heat.

The speed at which heat passes through materials depends on the collision of particles and electrons.
Why are gases usually insulators and poor
conductors of heat?

The physical properties of air and water are different – mostly because of their differing densities (air has a
much higher density of 998.21 kg/m-3 compared to water with 1.204 kg/m-3).

Summarize the physical properties for air and water:

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Comparing the adaptations to physical properties of animals:

The ringed seal (Pusa hispida) lives almost exclusively in the cold seas and on the ice of the Arctic Basin. The
black-throated loon (Gavia arctica) also lives in the cold Arctic, spending time in the water, on land and in the
air. These two animals have physical and behavioural adaptations to the physical properties of both air and
water in respect to viscosity, buoyancy, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity.

Complete the table to compare animal adaptations to the physical properties of air and water
The mammal: Ringed seal (Pusa hispida) The bird: Arctic loon (Gavia artica)

Adaptatations Adaptations

Buoyancy

Viscosity

Thermal
conductivity

Specific
heat
capacity

Extraplanetary origin of water on Earth

There is a lot of water on Earth – where does it have its origin?

Scientists believe that water sources on Earth are a consequence

of asteroid collision, which have taken place in the first few 100
million years after Earth’s formation. These asteriods most likely
also contained a lot of water in the form of hydrated minerals.

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Watch the film and answer the questions:

When was the Earth formed?

What is the most widely supported hypothesis for the origin of the vast amounts of water on Earth?

For a long time, scientists thought that comets, which contain far more water than asteroids, were thought to
have delivered water to Earth Why has this idea been refuted?

Asteroids only collide with Earth about once every 20 million years and usually do not contain much water.
Larger bombardment in the history of the Earth seems to have taken place even after the moons formed. Pieces
of evidence which seem to support the idea of asteroid bombardment are found within two 4.5-million-year-
old meteorites containing water which were found on Earth. The “molecular fingerprint” in terms of its isotope
ratio matches the ones of our oceans.

The Earth’s crust also contains a remarkable amount of gold. How does this further support the hypothesis that
asteroid brought the water to the Earth?

After its delivery by asteroids, how was the water retained on the Earth’s surface rather than evaporating and
being lost back into space? Comment on:

Distance of Earth from the sun (Goldilock zone):

Size of the Earth and resulting gravity and magnetic field:

Extraplanetary origin of water on Earth

For water to stay on Earth (or any planet) after

its appearance, it must be at the right
temperature, as if the temperature is to high
water would evaporate. If it were too low, all the
water would freeze. The right temperature is
therefore the one which allows water to stay at
a liquid zone. The temperature is determined by
the distance of a planet away from a star.

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