Unit 2 - Module 1 - Water Flashcards
What is an example of water being used as a solvent?
70%-95% of cytoplasm is water. Dissolved chemicals take part in processes such as respiration and photosynthesis in living organisms.
What is the importance of water as solvent?
Metabolic processes in all organisms rely on chemicals being able to react together in solution.
What is the importance of water as a liquid?
The movement of material around organisms, both in cells and on a large scale in multicellular organisms, requires a liquid transport medium.
What are some examples of water as a liquid?
Blood in animals and the vascular tissues in plants use water as a liquid transport medium.
What is the importance of cohesion in water!
It creates surface tension at the water surface. Also makes long thin, water columns very string and difficult to break.
How is cohesion of water molecules used in organisms?
Transport of water in xylem relies on cohesion in the transpiration stream.
Some small organisms make uses of the surface tension to walk on water.
What is the importance of water freezing?
It forms ice on the surface. Water beneath the surface becomes insulted and less likely to freeze.
What are some examples of water freezing being important?
Organisms such as polar bears live on floating ice packs.
Lakes tend not to freeze completely so aquatic organisms are not killed as temperature fall.
What is the importance of the thermal stability of water?
Large bodies of water have fairly constant temperatures.
Evaporation of water can cool surfaces by removing heat.
What are some examples of the thermal stability of water?
Oceans provide a relatively stable environment in terms of temperature.
Many land based organisms use evaporation as a cooling mechanism, e.g. panting or sweating.
What is the metabolic importance of water?
It takes part as a reactant in some chemical processes.
What are some example of water in metabolism?
Used in hydrolysis reactions and in photosynthesis.
What properties of water are hydrogen bonds responsible for?
Boiling, melting points
Density
Cohesion and surface tension
Water as a solvent.
Explain how hydrogen bonds are responsible for the properties of water?
I can’t to be bothered as just use chemistry stuff.
